Unknown Secrets from his Past
by DeeMarie426
Summary: Jon was now a WWE superstar, living out his dream as Dean Ambrose. He had no worries and very little responsibility. But what happens when his ex-girlfriend's best friend accidentally walks back into his life unexpectedly and he finds out he has a 17-month-old daughter he never knew about, and her mother died giving birth to her? Dean Ambrose/OC
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not know or own Dean Ambrose/Jonathan Good, or any other WWE personality who may appear in this story. The only characters I own are Kaelyn, Madelyn (A.K.A Mattie) and Satyana (A.K.A. Sadie).**

**Authors Note: Alright, this idea came to me awhile ago and I'll be honest, I was really hesitant about posting it because of all the fan girls that have popped up lately, and started digging for information into Ambrose's person life, for whatever reasons. Initially I ignored the idea, hoping it would just disappear (I've had it happen with other story ideas when I ignored them), but ignoring it didn't work, so I started typing it up two weeks ago. Now, quickly going back to the digging into his personal life thing, and just so we are completely clear, as I stated in the disclaimer above this, I **_**do not**_** know Ambrose, or anybody else from the WWE you see mentioned in this story. The only characters I own are the made up ones. Anything that I have written in this story (aside from the facts which can be found on various internet sites around the wed) is a **_**complete**_** figment of my warped imagination. I just wanted to make sure that was completely clear. With that out of the way, I hope you all enjoy my twisted imagination coming to life. On to the prologue! **

**Prologue**

Kaelyn couldn't believe her eyes. There was absolutely no way the pregnancy test laying in front of her was right. She could not be pregnant! That would make her a single mother because there was no way in hell she could tell the father; her now ex-boyfriend. Well actually, she could, but then his dreams would come to an abrupt halt. She refused to let that happen.

You see, she was staying in Ohio; he was off to Florida. Actually, to be more accurate, he had already left for Florida. Before hand, they'd both agreed a long distance relationship between them would never work, so they mutually broke off their relationship. It's not that they didn't love each other. They just knew their relationship would never survive long distance. Jon just wasn't the long distance relationship type of guy; heck, Kaelyn as surprised he was a relationship type of guy at all. It didn't exactly go with his upbringing or his personality, but somehow, they'd managed a - monogamous - two year relationship.

He'd left three weeks ago for one of the WWE developmental territories, located in Tampa, Florida. There was no way she would call him about this news now. It would destroy the future he'd been waiting his entire life for. Absolutely. No. Way!

She refused to be the reason why he didn't finish chasing his dreams. He had finally gotten his big break; the break he'd been waiting for since he started wrestling back when he was only seventeen-years-old. Under normal circumstances, wrestling schools usually required a person to be eighteen, but he'd been going to the Heartland Wrestling Association camp since he was sixteen. He'd initially gone there to train, lied and said he was eighteen, but they quickly learned his true age and told him he was too young to get in the ring; come back when he was eighteen. That didn't stop him from going to the training sessions though; actually, that only pissed him off and made him want it more. He even went as far as challenging the leader of the organization, who basically laughed in his face and told him to leave. He did as he was told and left, but he didn't stay away for long. No, in fact, he was back that same night, refusing to give up on what he wanted. Another HWA member, and the co-leader, Cody Hawk, finally decided he could at least stick around and be on the staff until he was of legal age to wrestle. That wasn't what Jon wanted, but he took it because it at least allowed him to watch the three-hour training sessions every day. That was good enough to observe and learn some things he could apply when he was finally allowed in the ring.

By the time he turned seventeen, the leader that had initially turned him away, Les Thatcher, had left the company, which gave Cody Hawk the full authority to allow Jon to begin in-ring training under him full time. Kaelyn could remember him telling her this story on more than one occasion. He loved wrestling. It wasn't just his job, it was his life. He'd come so close to making it to the big time, with WWE, so many times before. He'd done dark matches, as well as made one TV appearance in 2006, but he never did get the recognition, or break, he needed, or deserved at the time.

That is until a month in a half ago. Before he'd finally gotten the call a little more than a month ago, the closest he'd come to a WWE contract was having a WWE hiring-exec tell him he was all but hired after a random dark match, only to have that same person get fired four days later; before a contract could be agreed to, or signed. That ended all hope for him at that time. He felt his only chance had just been ripped from his grasp; it happened more than just that once, but that was the closest encounter. Instead of moping about it, or giving up wrestling, he stuck with the indie organizations and continued to build on his skill until he was finally discovered and signed by WWE.

She would not be the reason this opportunity was ripped away from him. Again. Let's face it, this time it would be more than a 'hiccup'. This type of thing would completely end his career, not hinder it a little bit like the other 'hiccups' he'd encountered. A baby was a huge responsibility. They required a steady, full-time job, as well as a secure living environment. She knew if she told him, he'd come back because he always said he didn't want to be like his dad; who up and left when Jon was young, leaving his mother to raise him on her own. That in turn led to Jon growing up in a less than perfect part of town with a less than perfect mother. He'd told her the one time they had a pregnancy scare, about a year ago, that he didn't want his children to have the type of upbringing he did, so he'd do whatever it took to make sure they were raised under better circumstances.

Yes, he'd likely keep wrestling as a hobby, but that wasn't enough for him; wrestling was his life! No, obviously, she hadn't gone through all of his ups and downs with him because she'd only dated him for two years, but she could always tell by the way he'd tell her a story related to wrestling just how much he loved and cared about it, and making it to the WWE. She knew everything he did revolved around wrestling. It's the only thing that got him through his rocky childhood after his father left. No way could, nor would, she force him to give it up.

Before she met him, she was not a wrestling fan. She happened to meet him on a whim, at a club/bar while she was out with some friends, and he had just finished a show and was hanging with a bunch of his own friends. After they got to know each other they became best friends and she started to pay attention to his matches; more so when he'd take her to the arena with him. She paid even closer attention to his career after they'd officially gotten together. If you asked her for any information about wrestling outside of what Jon was involved in, she probably wouldn't be able to tell you much; if anything at all.

All she really knew was her ex had great talent. Not that she had much other talent to compare him to, so maybe she was a wee-bit biased, but the fans always seemed to love him. Okay, more like hate him, but he always told her that was a good thing because it meant they were buying into his heel persona. Not being big into wrestling, she never was sure what that meant, but considering Jon always said it was a good thing, she knew it had to do with how talented he was.

She had been hoping and praying the home test had been wrong; that she'd somehow managed to take it wrong and it was giving her a false-positive reading. But she knew deep down that wasn't the case because she had every single pregnancy symptom known to woman. Now the doctor had just given her the icing on the cake with a blood test, confirming the blatantly obvious answer. She was indeed pregnant. She would just have to raise this baby on her own, without its father. They'd made a mistake, but she'd be the only one left to deal with the consequences because she couldn't bring herself to bring his world crashing down around him. She wouldn't allow him to resent her and their child later because he would rather be on the road wrestling than home with her and this baby.

Little did she know, her life was about to take a sad turn and it wouldn't be she, or Jon, dealing with the consequences they'd created. No, it'd be her best friend that ended up on the receiving end of all of it.


	2. Chapter One

**Disclaimer: I do not own Dean Ambrose/Jonathan Good or any other WWE personality you recognize. The people own themselves, WWE owns their characters. I only own the original characters of Madelyn (A.K.A. Mattie), Kaelyn and Satyana (A.K.A. Sadie).**

****

Authors Note: Thanks for the reviews and the follows. It's awesome to know you guys enjoyed the prologue. Here's chapter one. I'm sorry this chapter is short, but the chapters get longer, I promise.

* * *

Madelyn had decided to take her seventeen-month old daughter to Disney World. On their way, they were forced to endure a layover in Tampa, Florida. Keeping a seventeen-month-old occupied in an airport was proving to be a challenge, but Mattie had managed to do so by sitting in a café feeding her snacks and allowing her to walk around a bit. She never imagined that idea would end up causing her and her daughter's lives to be flipped upside down by the one man she never expected to see again, let alone have to tell the biggest secret her best friend had ever kept from anyone before; the same secret she was now regretting knowing about.

You see, Mattie isn't Satyana's biological mother. No, her best friend was.

* * *

The WWE had given The Shield a couple days off, so Jon, Colby and Joe had made their way back to Florida, where they'd been staying since their days in FCW/NXT, for a few days for some R&R. Today it was time to pack up and head back out for the next leg of the WWE's tour.

After clearing through security, Jon walked through the airport toward the gate where his plane would be boarding. Colby and Joe hadn't arrived at the airport yet and their plane wasn't due to board for another half hour. Usually, stable would travel together, but Colby's girlfriend wanted to drop him off, while Joe's fiancée and daughter wanted to see him off, so they could spend a little more time together before the guys were away for the week. So Jon was flying solo for the time being. Seeing a café near where their gate was set to board, he ordered a snack and placed his luggage down at a table and sat down to eat while he awaited his teammate's arrivals.

Jon had finished half of his snack when he caught sight of a baby who was toddling around. From the looks of it, she had just learned to walk not too long ago. He usually wasn't one for interacting with babies, but had to admit with her dirty blonde hair, the bow holding it back out of her eyes and her cute sundress and the matching shoes she had on her tiny feet, she was absolutely adorable. As he finished up his snack he couldn't help but continue to glance at the baby girl. He couldn't figure out exactly why, but something about her was oddly familiar.

Jon quickly discarded his trash and pulled his phone out of his pocket to check his e-mail and root around the internet while he continued killing time. At some point while he wasn't paying attention, the little girl had toddled toward him. Hearing her giggle and squeal from a closer range caused him to look up at her and smile. By now she was standing right in front of him, and the familiarity he had felt made him kneel down in front of the baby to get a closer look at her and try to figure out why he so connected to her. The piercing blue eyes staring back at him reminding him so much of his own eyes, but why?

"Satyana come back over to mommy."

The smile Jon had on his face quickly disappeared as his breath caught in his throat. He knew that voice. It was a voice belonging to someone Jon had never expected to hear from, or see again. Question was why was she in Florida, and if this was her daughter who was the little girl's father?


	3. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two**

**Disclaimer: Still the same as the prologue! Still own nobody except O/C's and am not associated with anyone in WWE.**

Jon looked up as Mattie approached Satyana and him. He swallowed hard as he stood up and took a step away from the baby. Mattie's face couldn't have gone any whiter if she was a ghost. It was clear she was just as shocked to see him as he was to see her.

"H…Hi," Mattie managed to stammer out as she picked up the baby.

Jon couldn't find his voice, so he just nodded his head in acknowledgement. He watched Mattie swallow again before saying "So, how have you been?"

Jon shrugged. "I've been good. Moved up from development to the main roster," he managed to say. He was dying to ask where Kaelyn was, but he bit his tongue, instead saying "So, who's this cutie?" Mattie gave him a hesitant smile while looking at the baby.

"This is Satyana Kaelyn," Mattie said, fixing the cute little bow clip that was in Satyana's hair, holding her bangs out of her blue eyes. She purposely left out key details, as to not tip him off. One of the last things her best friend had told her was that she didn't want Jon to know he had a child. Mattie wasn't sure why letting him know would be such a bad thing, but she promised to keep her friend's secret.

"How old is she?" Jon's curiosity was definitely peaked and the similarities between the baby and himself didn't help anything.

Mattie was hesitant to answer, and Jon didn't like her hesitancy. The lack of a swift response was beginning to help him piece the puzzle together. "Mattie, how old is Satyana?"

She still gave no response.

"Okay, if you won't give me that, let me ask you straight out, is she yours? Who's her father?" Mattie opened her mouth to respond when Jon held his hand up, having a feeling she was about to lie to him. "Before you answer either of those questions, think."

Mattie was stuck. There was no way to avoid telling him. He was the type of guy that would go through hell to find out the truth. After his childhood, nobody could really blame him. As much as she hated to spill her friend's secret, she had no choice. Her biggest fear, though, was that once he found out the truth, he'd take Sadie away from her. As her father, who didn't know she existed before now, and therefore hadn't signed away any parental rights, and the fact she never reported the baby as abandoned when she was in the midst of the adoption process would give Jon all the parental rights he needed in the eyes of the law. Mattie would fight like hell if she had to, to make sure that didn't happen. She had been Sadie's only family since day one. She knew it wasn't Jon's fault he wasn't in her life, but she couldn't allow him to rip her from her familiar surroundings. She'd have to convince him with his career it'd be best if she stayed in her custody, and he could have visitation if he wanted it.

But first, she had to tell him the truth. Mattie's voice got stuck in her throat. She couldn't bear to hear herself spill the secret, but she knew she had to. It was the right thing to do. "Look Jon, I know you're gonna be pissed when I tell you this, and I have no idea why she chose to do what she did, but Satyana is not my biological daughter. She's Kaelyn's."

There was a lengthy pause after the words left Mattie's mouth. Now Jon knew why Satyana looked so much like him. And that just pissed him off more. He tried to keep his voice even as he eyed the baby again. "That answers the father question too, doesn't it? She's mine, isn't she? And don't lie to me Mattie because, as you well know, I'm good at detecting when someone's lying to me. It's a trait I adapted at a very young age."

Mattie knew he was right. There was no way to lie to him, he'd find out the truth one way or another, so she just nodded her head. She watched Jon's face grow redder with every admission she made and she knew she had to get him to calm down before he made a scene in the middle of the airport and embarrassed them both. "Now I know you're thinking Kaelyn did this to hurt you, Jon, but she didn't. Just let me explain the whole situation to you before you go blowing this whole thing out of proportion. I'll be honest, her reasons don't quite make sense to me, but I'm just her best friend. They might make more sense to you; even if you don't agree with them, you may understand them better than I do. But let me explain it to you first. Please," Mattie all but begged, adjusting Satyana on her hip.

Jon checked his watch as he saw Colby and Joe walking toward them. He didn't have time for her to explain anything right now. "I have to catch my plane. We have a show to do tonight, and our plane should be leaving in the next fifteen minutes, so I don't have time for you to explain right now. How long are you in town for?"

Satyana was growing restless and beginning to fuss to get down. Watching the little girl squirm in discomfort made Jon reach over and pull her into his own arms without thinking about it. Mattie's eyes went wide, slight panic set in as he pulled Sadie out of her arms and set her on his own hip, but she managed to keep cool and swallow her panic in order to respond to him. "We're not technically in town. We just had to layover here to catch a plane to Orlando. I was in the midst of taking her to Disney World."

"You're going to Orlando, huh? What's your flight number?"

Mattie glanced at the ticket in her hand. "US Airways, Flight 210."

A smirk played on Jon's face. "Well, looks like we'll be able to talk after all. Our house show is in Orlando tonight, I'll sit with you and Sadie, and you and I can talk."

Mattie swallowed hard. It would be better to get this all out in the open now rather than later, so she nodded her head. "Alright, sounds good."

Colby and Joe had approached the pair in the middle of the conversation, only catching bits and pieces of it. They were utterly confused, but decided not to dig for information at the moment. If Jon wanted them to know who this girl was, or whose baby he was holding, for that matter, then they knew they had all grown close enough in the last year that he would tell them on his own time.


	4. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three**

**Author's Note: A couple things before the chapter begins: Going off the reviews, and the feedback on the baby's name, you all may be happy to know, from this chapter on, Satyana will be referred to as "Sadie", unless she's getting in trouble and/or being disciplined.**

**And one other thing before the chapter begins, in this chapter there's a part where Jon's talking to Colby and Joe, and his relationship with his parents comes up. All of the dialogue is obviously made up, but the scenario in which it revolves around is not completely made up. If you watched the "shoot" interview he did back in 2010 while still in CZW (the interview is on dailymotion. Just search "Jon Moxley"; but warning, it's over an hour long, so if you wanna watch it, make sure you have plenty of time to do so. It is a good interview, though.) Anyway, in the interview, he mentions his relationship with his mom is on better terms, and that a couple years before the interview was conducted he had gotten in contact with his dad, and they're also on better terms, so I didn't pull the scenario out of thin air, I just made it into a fictitious scenario to fit into the story. Obviously, as I've already stated a few times, I **_**do not**_** know Ambrose, so I have no idea what his family life is like, I just went off of what was said in the "shoot" interview in 2010. Sorry, this was a bit long, but I just wanted to throw that out there, so we're all completely clear. Hopefully, you all read this. Anyway, if you did read it, now you can feel free to enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

Jon handed Sadie back over to Mattie so she could take her into the ladies room and change her diaper before they boarded the plane. While she was away, Jon explained everything to Colby and Joe as quickly as he could; as they had suspected he would eventually do, if he wanted them to know what was going on. "So wait, you're telling me your ex-girlfriend was pregnant when you left for developmental, and she never bothered to tell you, and now her best friend is here with custody of your daughter, and she's taking her to Disney World? That all sounds weird. I mean, where's your ex?" Joe asked. Jon shrugged his shoulders.

"I haven't gotten all the details, and I haven't asked about her, or where she's at, yet. I'm afraid if I do, I may lash out on Mattie, and it's not her problem that Kaelyn severely pissed me off. But she has played a part in this whole thing because if I hadn't figured out Sadie looked just like me, and slowly piece it together, she would have lied and told me it was her child. To say I cannot believe either of them had the audacity to keep my daughter from me for over a year would be an understatement; I was so pissed off I was seeing red when I figured it out. But somehow I managed not to do anything because I didn't want to scare Sadie. Is it weird I had a connection with her literally the second I laid eyes on her and watched her toddle around the café? I mean, before she even got close to where I was sitting, I was drawn to her when I heard her giggle and squeal as she was running around the café. That's not normal, is it?" Joe laughed, while Colby shrugged his shoulders.

"Joe would have a better read on that than I would because obviously, I don't have any kids," Colby said, chuckling. Joe shook his head.

"That type of connection is normal between a parent and their child. All parents have a connection with their children; some just connect with them better than others." Jon smirked.

"Clearly, I didn't inherit my child/parent connection skills from either one of my parents, or I wouldn't have even acknowledged Sadie when she was running around." Colby laughed.

"The fact you can even joke about that shows how much stronger you are than I ever would've been in your shoes. Hell, the fact you didn't resent either of your parents for the rest of your life proves you're definitely stronger than I am. I'm ninety-nine percent sure I never would've been able to forgive them, but the fact you have and are on better terms with them now… Yeah, you're stronger than I am," Colby said, shaking his head. Jon shrugged.

"You can't change the past, but you can make your future better. You can also forgive without forgetting. That's what I decided to do back when I put myself on better terms with my parents. Don't think that just because I've forgiven them, to an extent, that it means I've forgotten what I went through as a child. Yes, I'm on speaking terms with both parents, and we're on better terms then we ever have been before, but honestly, I don't look at either of them as true parents. They're just too people I talk to from time-to-time and refer to as 'mom' and 'dad' when I see them. So yes, I forgave, but I've never forgotten." Jon paused, lost in thought for a moment.

"As a matter of fact, my childhood is why I'm so eager to find out all the details surrounding Sadie's existence, and why I didn't know about her before now. I want to be a better father than my dad was, and I told Kaelyn that; she knew it, yet she still took the opportunity to be a better dad than my dad was away from me up to this point, and that just totally pisses me off. Now, I want to know why she took this opportunity away from me, and why Mattie went along with it after she acquired custody of Sadie." Colby and Joe just nodded their heads in understanding as Mattie re-appeared with a cleaned up Sadie.

* * *

Mattie knew Jon had been talking to his teammates about the situation. While she didn't know much about his relationship with the two other wrestlers, she knew he made it a point to become friends with anyone he worked with. And these two were clearly two of his best friends. "Okay, she's all ready for the flight. Hopefully she'll fall asleep so she's not freaking out the whole time," Mattie said, placing Sadie into her stroller and strapping her in. "Do you guys want to go sit by the gate and wait to board our plane?" She asked the three men in front of her. They all shrugged.

"Sure, let's go sit and wait," Jon said, grabbing Sadie's diaper bag and stroller before Mattie had a chance to react and making her follow him to the chairs in the waiting area near the gate they'd be using to board their plane.


	5. Chapter Four

**Chapter Four**

* * *

After Mattie, Sadie, and The Shield members had finally boarded their plane, Mattie sat near the window, Sadie in her lap; Jon chose the set next to her; Colby sat in the seat to his right while Joe was to Colby's right, directly across the aisle. So they all ended up in the same proximity.

As the plane started to taxi down the run way the three adult's popped gum into their mouths to keep their ears from popping while Mattie made sure Sadie had her pacifier to suck on to protect her tiny, sensitive ears from the change in air pressure. She also made sure she had a toy to keep her distracted from noticing the plane was moving. Mattie had learned the hard way on their last flight that if Sadie knew they were moving, she'd freak out. It took her half the flight to clam the little girl down which made for a very rough experience, and frustrated other passengers. Mattie did not want a repeat of that ordeal again.

Once they were safely in the air, and Sadie was still happily sucking on her pacifier and playing with her favorite rattle, while Colby and Joe had submerged themselves in their iPods and laptops, Mattie decided it was now or never because now was as good a time as any to get this conversation over with. "Okay, so as you already know, I have custody of Sadie." Jon's head turned in her direction at the sound of her voice.

"Yes, that part I gathered. Now what I don't know and my biggest question to you is why do you have custody of my daughter? Why do you refer to yourself a 'mommy', and where exactly is her mother?" Jon asked.

"It's a long story, and I haven't had to explain it to anybody yet, so you may have to bear with me as I tell you all the details from the time she found out she was pregnant until Sadie was born. Think you can do that, without interrupting me, or getting pissed off?" Jon shrugged.

"I won't make any promises, but what I can tell you is that I'll do my best." Understanding his position in this matter, that response was good enough for Mattie.

"Kaelyn found out she was pregnant three weeks after you left for Florida. She knew how hard you'd worked to get a contract with them; she said you'd come close two or three times before, but it had never panned out for you at that time. So she didn't tell you because she knew you'd give up your contract; the contract you had worked so hard for, and come back. She was afraid in the long run you'd end up resenting her and the baby because the pregnancy would've stopped you from completing the final step in chasing your dreams. I told her she was insane for thinking that, but you know Kaelyn; once her mind was made up, there was no changing it. Believe me, even though I knew that, I tried throughout her entire pregnancy, and even while she was in labor, to get her to inform you. I even went as far as dialing your number on her phone. I never pressed send though; I'd leave that for her, but she refused every single time I made the suggestion."

Mattie paused for a moment, letting Jon digest everything she'd just told him so far before continuing. "Then she went into labor with Sadie. Everything looked like it was going great. That is, until right after Sadie was born. That's when everything completely hit the fan. She never even got to hold Sadie because as soon as she had delivered, the placenta had ripped away from the uterine wall causing her to bleed heavily; the doctor said she was hemorrhaging. They never could manage to get it to slow down, or stop…"

Mattie trailed off as her emotions over came her and she had to stop to regain her composer; which was probably a good thing because Jon couldn't believe what he was hearing. Mattie hadn't actually said it yet, but where she left off gave enough information for him to know Kaelyn hadn't made it; the mother of his child had died while giving birth to her. Not just that, but she never even got to hold their daughter before she passed. Jon had known Sadie for less than a day and had already held her in his arms once.

* * *

Sadie was starting to get a little fussy during the lull in the story. Mattie was trying to bounce her lightly, but it was nearly impossible with the sobs that were still wracking her body. Jon hated watching her cry, and he knew she couldn't handle Sadie at the moment. Realizing the pilot had turned the seatbelt sign off at some point in the middle of Mattie's story Jon unhooked his seatbelt and pulled Sadie out of Mattie's lap. Standing, he stepped over a now sleeping Colby as best he could without tripping and leaned toward Joe, tapping him on his shoulder lightly to get his attention without startling him. Joe removed slid his headphones off his ears so he could hear Jon. "What's up?"

"Can you take her for me? She's getting restless and Mattie is in no condition to care for her at the moment. I'll explain why after I know all the details; right now, she's recomposing herself to tell me the rest, but Sadie isn't helping with the story telling. All I can say right now is, it's bad. Obviously, Mattie couldn't get through the whole thing without crying; hence why she is in no shape to care for Sadie at the moment," Jon tried to explain. Joe nodded silently and gently took Sadie out of Jon's arms, placing her securely in his lap.

"No problem, dude. Hopefully she doesn't freak out on me because she doesn't know me," Joe said, chuckling a bit. Jon shook his head.

"Nah, she should be okay. She doesn't know me either, but she was fine with me holding her in the airport. You have a daughter. Just do what you did with her when she was that age and I think you should be fine. That's also why I handed her to you and didn't wake Colby. He really wouldn't have a clue what to do." Both of them laughed as Joe nodded in agreement.

"Alright, I have her pacifier and rattle, and so far she seems fine. I think we'll be okay on our own. Go ahead back and find out the rest of the story," Joe said, verbally nudging Jon back to his seat. Jon nodded and stepped back over Colby to his seat.

Mattie sniffled and wiped more tears from her face. "Where's Sadie?" She asked, quickly glancing around before noticing she was over with Jon's teammate.

"Joe has her. She'll be fine. He has a four-year-old daughter, so he knows how to handle a baby her age." Mattie just nodded before falling silent again and trying to regain enough of her composer to finish telling Jon what happened to Kaelyn.

The silence made Jon think some more about everything Mattie had told him so far. He still couldn't believe what he'd heard thus far. Yes, he was pissed at Kaelyn for keeping his daughter a secret from him. Even now, knowing her reasons for doing so did not make him feel any better about the whole thing. But he never would've wished death on anyone; not even his worst enemy! He wouldn't say he was still in love with Kaelyn at this point, but he certainly didn't hate her.

He had so many emotions running through his mind at the moment, but the biggest one was pure sadness. He was sad his daughter wouldn't have a mother to grow up with; he was also sad that, up to this point, she didn't have a father, either. He was determined to change that, of course, but that wouldn't fix, or effect the past, only the future. And that thought made him sad because he knew he wouldn't be able to confront Kaelyn about this whole situation. He knew her reasons, but that still didn't bring him a whole lot of comfort. Obviously, it was gonna have to do because she wasn't around to give him anything more on the situation.

* * *

A few minutes had passed since Jon had sat back down and Mattie had finally regained enough of her composer to continue the story. "They tried numerous blood transfusions, and tried desperately to get the uterus to clamp so the bleeding would slowly down and stop, but nothing worked. She died about forty-five minutes after Sadie was born."

After another short pause, Mattie continued. "As I'm sure you guessed when I told you I tried to get her to inform you even while she was in labor, I was in the delivery room with her. Even after you left she didn't make amends with her parents. She had nobody except me, which is why I have custody of Sadie. I'm not even sure she told her parents she was pregnant. They seemed shocked when I had called to tell them she had died while giving birth. But I'm not sure if they were shocked she had been giving birth, that she had died while doing so, or a combination of the two. In any event, I knew she knew she wasn't gonna make it when she told me, about twenty minutes before her last breath, never to tell you about Sadie. She made me promise I wouldn't tell you. I've obviously failed her on that promise, and believe me, it kills me that I did, but at the same time I know it was the right thing to do. Sadie lost her mother, but she has a father. I think she deserves the right to know at least one of them. Don't you?" She asked, looking at Jon as she again wiped fallen tears from her cheeks.

The whole story had rendered Jon speechless. He couldn't believe Kaelyn was gone and his daughter didn't have a mother. Didn't every little girl need a mother, or at the most a mother-figure in their life? He couldn't find his voice to respond to Mattie, so he just nodded his head in agreement before both fell silent for awhile; Mattie recovering from her tear spell and Jon allowing all the information he'd just learned to sink into his brain. He was a father to a little girl who had no mother. He had a lot of decisions to make regarding his daughter, and he had no idea how he was going to make them on his own.


	6. Chapter Five

**Chapter Five**

* * *

Once their plane landed in Orlando, Jon woke Colby up and asked him to move out of the way, so he could retrieve Sadie from Joe. As much as he hated to give her back to Mattie he knew he had no choice. He couldn't bring a baby with him on the road as much as he was on the road. Not to mention he did want her to enjoy Disney World; even if there was absolutely no chance she'd remember this trip when she got older. Surely Mattie would take plenty of photos of her on the different rides and meeting the different character so she could commemorate the trip. However, he wasn't handing her back over for any of that to happen until he got to give her a proper goodbye first.

He made sure he was the first one off the plane, Sadie still securely wrapped in his arms; Mattie, Colby and Joe directly behind him. Once he was off the ramp and safely in the airport, he stepped out of the away of the rush of people coming off the plane behind him, as well as Mattie and his stable mates. Knowing he wanted a moment alone with his daughter they stopped where they were and waited for him to rejoin them when he was good and ready. None of them were in a rush to get anywhere, so he could take as long as he wanted.

Jon adjusted Sadie so her face was level with his. He kissed her forehead and rested his hand on the back of her head, pulling her forehead against his chin. She wasn't paying any attention to her father, too preoccupied with playing with the buttons on his shirt. "I never was any good at this goodbye stuff. Took me a week just to tell your mother I had finally achieved my dream and was headed to Florida to start my developmental career. It took me even longer than that to say goodbye to her," Jon said, laughing a little more bitterly than he had intended at the mention of Kaelyn. Good thing Sadie was too young to catch on, or to even understand what he was saying. Jon was gonna have to remember not to say bitter things about Kaelyn around Sadie. He did not want her to end up hating the mother she never even got to know. Just because he wasn't happy with the way this whole thing went down, didn't mean he had to turn their daughter against her biological mother; that wasn't fair to Sadie. "I haven't figured out how I'm gonna work this all out just yet, but I promise you this isn't the last you've seen of me. I may not have any set plan at the moment, but I will figure out something, kid. I won't do to you what my dad did to me growing up. That life sucked, and I definitely don't want that for you. I promise, I will figure it out, I always do," Jon vowed.

He knew without any set plan in place, his travel schedule, and the fact Mattie still lived in Cincinnati, it was gonna be a much bigger challenge to stay in Sadie's life, but he was more than determined to be a better than his father ever was to him; he didn't care what it took, he was going to be better. His career was just proof that when he wanted something and he set his mind on a certain goal, he could achieve just about anything he wanted to.

Giving Sadie one last kiss on the head, he finally turned back toward the rest of the group, taking a few strides toward them to rejoin them. "Here, take her before I can't give her back. Because I'll be totally honest with you, I'm completely serious when I say I'm half-tempted to take her with me right now. But I know that wouldn't be fair to her. Not to mention, it'd be a lot more boring if she went with me than Disney World will be. By the way, I want photos of some of the activities. Once again I'm missing something in her life, only this time I know about it, so means I can't be there, I at least wanna see her enjoying herself," Jon said, handing Sadie back over to Mattie. Mattie knew Jon was dead serious, but she couldn't help but chuckle a bit.

"I promise I'll take good care of her, and now that we have each other's phone numbers, I will be sure to send you at least one photo a day, and I'll keep in touch throughout the trip, as well as once we return to Cincinnati. I cannot promise she'll get to watch you on TV because I think she's a little too young for Raw and Smackdown, but I can promise I'll show her some photos, and let you talk to her on the phone whenever you want, as long as she's awake, so she knows you exist. We can also facetime, or Skype, so she gets to hear your voice, if that's what you want," Mattie said, trying to lighten the mood a bit. Jon smirked and nodded.

"Alright, sounds fair. As soon as I come up with a solution for visitation, I will be calling you. I have to figure out a way to see her more than once or twice a year. I'm not sure how yet, but I'll think of something." Mattie nodded and shrugged.

"Just give me enough warning to adjust my work schedule, or whatever, and we can work something out from there. I want her to know you're her father. I know her mother didn't, for her own warped reasons, but as sad as it is, her mother isn't here anymore. She needs one of her biological parents. I may be "mommy", but it's really only by name; I'm not related to her in any way. You on the other hand, you _are_ her daddy, by name and blood. As long as you want to be, that is. And clearly, you do. So I promise, I will keep in touch," Mattie said before leaning in for a quick hug. Jon wraps his arms around her and Sadie, returning the hug, and placing one final kiss on Sadie's head before Mattie placed her into her stroller and strapped her in, and they walked off, leaving the three superstars standing behind them.

* * *

"Well, I'd say today's been eventful," Colby said, being the first brave enough to break the silence that had fallen over them as they watched Mattie disappear into the mass of humanity before them with Sadie.

"You're telling me. When I woke up this morning, I had one worry: making it to the airport in time for our flight. Now, I have a bunch of worries; the biggest of which is figuring out a way to see my daughter again before she turns two. I've already missed a year plus of her life and I'm afraid I'm gonna miss more than I want to from here out. Yeah, I'm not even sure 'eventful' begins to describe how this day has gone, Colby," Jon said, agitation clearly lacing his voice. He grabbed his luggage from the floor where he'd dropped it earlier while saying goodbye to Sadie and headed toward the baggage claim area.

As they began walking toward the airports exit, after claiming their bags from baggage claim, Joe finally speaks up for the first time since his conversation with Jon on the plane when he took Sadie for him. "If you're so worried about seeing her again, why not suggest to Mattie about having she and Sadie move to Tampa with you? With your travel schedule, there's no way you can take custody of her on your own, and Mattie is the only 'mom' she's ever known. Not to mention, I can tell by the way you're talking you don't wanna take her away from the only person she's been most familiar with for seventeen-months now. You're apartment is big enough. Just run the idea by Mattie and see what she says."

Jon was about to protest the idea and tell Joe just how stupid it sounded, but he stayed quiet, as the vision of the idea ran through his head. Replaying the imaginary images in his head over and over again made him realize Joe may have just been on to something. After all, he was living in a three bedroom apartment that was almost big enough to be a house, and it was only him. He hadn't dated anyone since he broke up with Kaelyn before moving to Florida. Yes, he had the occasional one-night stand, but that was while he was on the road, so he was the only one that had ever been in his apartment for any length of time. So there were no worries about any ex's trying to move themselves back in. There was also plenty of room for he, Mattie and Sadie to live comfortably. Not to mention, that would nix any issues of visitation. The plan sounded brilliant, except for one factor: Mattie.

He had to get Mattie to agree to uproot herself and Sadie from Cincinnati to Tampa and he wasn't sure she was going to go for that. That's a huge change in living environment, but he couldn't think of any other way to see Sadie as much as he wanted to.

His biggest challenge had just been changed from seeing his daughter again to getting Mattie to agree to move to Tampa. He knew he had no choice. He had to convince her, one way or another.


	7. Chapter Six

**Chapter Six**

* * *

The Shield had just finished their match and an in-ring promo, and they were done with their spots on RAW for the night. So Jon went back to the locker room and got out of his tactical gear and quickly took a post-match shower. Once he got out, dried off, and threw on some clothes; sans a shirt for the moment, he pulled his iPhone out of his duffle bag side pocket and checked to see if he had any missed calls or messages. He smiled when he saw Mattie had sent him another message. Opening it he saw a picture of Sadie and Mattie in front of the castle. It was just a simple goofy photo that Mattie must have asked somebody passing by to snap for her with Cinderella's castle in the background, but Jon absolutely loved it. He never thought something so simple could make his day so much brighter, but as simple as a photo as it was, it had made him smile. Unlocking the phone, he quickly responded back to the photo with a simple 'Thank you,' letting her know he'd seen it, and then he placed the phone into his jeans pocket; just in case it went off again.

It had been two days since he had met Sadie and came to the realization that he had a daughter he had no idea about for seventeen months. Mattie had kept up with her promise of sending him one photo throughout the trip; actually, she had been sending three or four a day, but Jon definitely wasn't complaining. He loved seeing his daughter enjoy her trip; even if it was only through silly photos.

His next task was talking to Mattie about the whole moving idea. He figured once he was back in his hotel room and situated for the night, he would facetime. She would probably wonder why he was facetiming her so late when Sadie was already asleep, but he'd get to that in time. He was hoping she wouldn't straight up say no. He didn't care if she thought about it, but a straight up no would crush him and send him straight back to the drawing board.

Mattie responded to his text with a 'no problem' putting another smile on Jon's face.

'I'm still at the arena, so I can't at the moment, but once I'm back at the hotel and situated can I facetime you,' Jon asked. He figured it'd be best to make sure she wasn't going to bed yet before he tried to facetime. He didn't wanna wake her up by facetiming her.

'Sure, but you do know Sadie's already asleep, right?'

Jon quickly checked the time. 'I know. I wanna talk to you about something, but I don't wanna do it in a text, or over the phone; I wanna do it face-to-face, but given our situation, that's not exactly easy. I figured facetime was the best way to do it.'

'Oh okay. Well, I'll be up until about midnight.'

Jon was glad it wasn't too late. 'Alright, I'll be back at the hotel before that, so sounds good. I'll talk to you in a bit.'

'Okay, talk to you then.'

* * *

After Jon, Joe and Colby got back to the hotel Jon told his stablemates he was going back to their room to laydown and talk to Mattie. The nodded as they headed for the hotel bar to unwind, while Jon headed for the elevator, key card in hand. Arriving at the room, he quickly unlocked the door and went into the room. Throwing his gear bag on the floor out of the walk way, he pulled his shirt off and threw himself onto the bed pulling his phone out of his pocket. He quickly found Mattie's name and hit the "facetime" option.

It felt like Jon waited hours for her to answer the 'call', but it was really only seconds before Mattie finally connected the call. "Hey Jon, to what do I owe this late night conversation," she asked, curiosity lacing her voice.

"I think I've come up to a custody solution for Sadie, but before I run the idea by you, I want you to promise to have an open mind about the whole thing. It's the only way you'll be able to make a fair decision." Mattie shrugged.

"I can try, Jon, but until I know what you're going to ask me to do, I can't promise anything."

"Okay, fair enough. Alright, so after we split from you the other day at the airport, Joe, one of my teammates, ran an idea by me. At first, I thought it was a stupid idea, but the more I thought about it, the more I could actually picture it working out. Not to mention, it's the best solution to the visitation/ custody issue. I want you and Sadie to move into my apartment in Tampa with me. Before you say anything, let me add that I know it's a lot to ask, but I can't raise her on my own with my road schedule, and you've been all she's known for seventeen months. You don't have to agree right this minute, you can think about it, but I think if you keep an open mind while thinking about it, you'll see this is the best solution to this whole ordeal for all of us," Jon said, finally letting Mattie contemplate everything he had just told her.

"Oh jeez, Jon. That's a huge question to throw at me. I… I'll think about it. I can't give you an answer right now because that's a huge commitment to make, and if I agree I have a ton of things to do in Cincinnati before I can move to Florida with you."

"I understand. I'll let you think about it for a couple weeks, but I will be asking you again in a couple weeks because if you can't do it then I have to come up a different solution." Mattie nodded.

"Okay, I'll let you know within two weeks. Is that all you wanted to talk about?"

"Yeah, I'll facetime you to talk to Sadie tomorrow. Goodnight."

"Goodnight," Mattie said disconnecting face time and sinking back into the sofa as the question Jon had just thrown at her caused a ton of questions to pop into her head. If she said no, would he find a nanny for Sadie and take her away? Would living with him make them best friends, or worst enemies? Did he have more in mind than just friendship? Mattie knew tonight would be a night of little sleep for her as the unanswered questions continued to swirl within her mind.


	8. Chapter Seven

**Chapter Seven**

* * *

**Authors Note: Thanks to all those reviewing this. It makes me wanna post another chapter quicker. I think this is the longest chapter I've written yet. We're gonna start getting into the juice part of the story in the next few chapters. You'll get an idea of Mattie's background growing up in this chapter, as well as her final decision. Did she say she agree to Jon's plan, or turn him down? Read and fine out! ;)**

* * *

The two weeks Jon had given Mattie were quickly coming to an end. She and Sadie had been back in Cincinnati for a few days now and she had less than a day left to make her final decision and render it to him. She weighed the pros and cons of the whole situation daily for nearly two weeks, and the pros of moving in with him seemed to far outweigh the cons.

The biggest con was the decision to not only move to a different city, but to a whole different state. She had no family holding her back. Her grandparents, who had raised her since she was two-years-old, had passed away a few years ago, she didn't know who her dad was, and her mom and she didn't have a very good relationship. Actually, their relationship was so bad, it didn't even exist. You'd think all of that would make her wanna get out of the city, let alone the state. But she still loved the state of Ohio and she absolutely loved the city of Cincinnati. Her memories may not all be good, but her whole life had been spent there thus far. It felt really weird to leave her hometown for a guy she wasn't even romantically involved with. What made the whole situation feel even more peculiar was the fact she was doing it to help him raise his child; a child she had no blood relation to, but had loved as if they did share blood for the last seventeen-months.

The more she thought about her final decision the more she realized that to a random stranger who may see them out and about together around Tampa, and who clearly wouldn't have a clue about the circumstances surrounding Sadie's existence, the three of them would likely appear to be just another loving family. Mattie wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. She was glad Jon didn't want to push her out of Sadie's life, given she'd been there since day one. Since she'd officially adopted Sadie she'd always thought about, one day, meeting someone, settling down, and having her own kids. Would she ever get that chance with Jon around? Given her final decision, it appeared she was going to find out in fairly short order.

Mattie's phone rang, startling her out of her final decision contemplation. Looking at the caller ID she sighed. Now was the moment of truth. Technically, she didn't have to give him the answer now, but why delay the inevitable? Sliding her finger across her iPhone screen she pressed the phone to her ear. "Hey Jon, what's up?"

"Hey Mats. Not much. Just figured I'd call and see if I could chat with Sadie. I was going through the photos you sent me on my phone and was missing her, so I figured I'd try talking to her. Is she up from her nap yet?" Mattie sighed.

"No, she's still asleep. Do you have anything happening in the next hour, or so?"

"No, just sitting in the hotel room by myself. Colby and Joe went to the gym. Usually, I'd go with them, but I was feeling too depressed and out-of-sorts today to endure a workout. I'll just have to work extra hard tomorrow to make up for losing today."

"Alright, well as soon as she gets up I'll facetime you so you can see her while you're talking to her." Jon had to admit Mattie's idea was much better than his initial idea.

"Okay, that idea is definitely better than my idea. I'll talk to you in a bit," he said, planning to hang up, but before he could, Mattie spoke up.

"Wait Jon, before you go I think I have something that may help cheer your mood up a little bit." Mattie paused.

"Okay, what's that?" He asked, letting her know he had heard her before he hung up.

"I've thought about your proposition for nearly two weeks now, and I know I don't have to give you an answer until tomorrow, but I don't see how waiting any longer will make my decision any different." Again, Mattie took a short pause, giving him a chance to catch up with what she was saying before she continued. "I've weighed every pro and con there is to weigh on this situation every day since you presented the idea to me, and the pros far outweigh the cons. The biggest con I have that concerns me is not only moving to a whole new city thing, but the whole moving states thing freaks me out, too. I've lived in Cincinnati my entire life; and it's where Sadie was born and, to this point, raised."

Jon listened to Mattie and given that she said this conversation would help improve his mood, he thought he knew what she was gonna say before she had even said it. But her last sentence made him think maybe he was wrong. Maybe she had told him it would improve his mood to get him to stay on the phone so she could actually crush him a little more. Deciding he couldn't let that happen he intervened before she could continue any further. "Wait, Mattie, if you're worried Sadie won't know where she was born, or where her life started, don't be. I know I don't live in Cincinnati anymore, but I still go back to visit every now and again. I will be taking her back there every chance I get. You can come along too, if you want. I'm not trying to erase Cincinnati from her life. You have to understand, I loved Cincinnati, but it holds a lot more bad memories for me than good memories. That's why I don't live there anymore; well, that and we know about me moving to Tampa for the WWE's developmental territory, and the fact I fell in love with Tampa, too. Anyway, I can promise you I will take her back to visit, so she will know where she was born and where her life started. Sorry, I know I repeated myself, but I wanna make sure you know I'm not trying to erase Cincinnati out of her life. Just felt I had to let you know that before I heard your final decision. Go ahead continue with what you were saying."

Everything Jon had just told her eased her fears about her decision completely. But Mattie couldn't shake the idea that Jon actually thought she'd tell him she would cheer him up only to actually chrush him. She couldn't hold back, she had to voice her curiosity. "Did you actually think I was about to tell you my decision was no? Why would I tell you it would _help_ your mood if I was only going to shoot you down? Wouldn't that further destroy your mood?"

Jon knew she had a point, but him being him, he wasn't about to go down without a fight. "I know what you said, and I was pretty sure I knew what you were going to say until you started talking about your biggest con. Then I wasn't so sure because you started mentioning stuff about fears, so I figured I'd help clear up any confusion you may have had, and ease any fears. I'm sorry for trying to help." He knew he probably sounded a little more hostile than he should have, but at that particular moment, he didn't care.

Mattie was appalled at his attitude. "I actually doubt it more now than I did before because now you're being an ass!"

"Are you serious? I'm an ass? Why because I was trying to make a life changing decision easier on you?" Now Jon was utterly confused. All he thought he was doing was helping her, and instead it had started an argument. Sometimes he wished he knew how to avoid confrontation, but for some reason he didn't have those solution capabilities programmed into his blood or brain; for as long as he could remember confrontation always found him.

"No, you're being an ass because after I asked you a simple question, out of curiosity, you got hostile. I don't like hostility, so if that's how you are when you're asked simple questions, then maybe I did make the wrong decision. I'll facetime you when Sadie gets up," Mattie said before hanging up her phone without giving Jon a chance to respond. She was done arguing with him.

Jon was pissed. He was pissed at the altercation he had just found himself in. He was pissed that he hadn't talked to his daughter yet like he wanted to. But most of all, he was pissed at how he had handled the altercation. He knew Mattie was right. He was too hostile after she simply questioned him. When she asked she didn't ask him with a hostile tone, she was only curious about his sudden intervention. And all he had done was become hostile and turn the whole thing into an altercation because he had jumped to conclusions. He was gonna have to apologize when she facetimed him.

* * *

Forty-five minutes after they had ended their shaky phone conversation, Jon's phone finally alerted him to a facetime "call" from Mattie. He was still pissed at himself for their earlier altercation, but now was his chance talk with Sadie and fix the earlier altercation. Accepting the facetime invite, he watched as his daughter's adorable little face lit up his screen. "Hey baby girl! Did you have a nice nap?"

Sadie still wasn't much of a talker, but Mattie had told him she had figured out a few easy words like bye, hi, and Jon's utmost favorite, dada. Jon hadn't actually heard her say any of them yet. He was really hoping she'd open up a bit and talk to him during one of their facetime session, but so far, no luck.

"Go ahead, Sadie talk to daddy. Tell him what you were yelling from your crib when you woke up. Go ahead," Mattie tried to encourage the baby in the background. Sadie wouldn't cave, though. It was clear the little girl had inherited her daddy's stubbornness. Jon was determined to get her to say something, anything, before Sadie grew tired of playing with Mattie's phone.

"Sad-die," Jon sang her name in a sing-song tone, trying to get her to do, or say, something other than stare at Mattie's phone screen. "Are you gonna talk to daddy? Please? I just wanna hear you say something… anything!" Jon tried again. Still nothing; not even a giggle. Sadie started to get restless as Mattie sighed and took the phone back from the little girl.

"Sorry Jon, I tried."

"I know. She'll warm up to talking more eventually. We just have to keep working on her. And hey, now that you guys are gonna be living with me, maybe I'll get her to say it in person."

Mattie shrugged. "Yeah, maybe, we'll see." The mere mention of their earlier conversation's topic quickly reminded Mattie that she was still pretty aggravated about their earlier conversation, but she had pushed it aside as soon as she hit the 'send' button on the facetime application in favor of being civil for Sadie's sake. She knew the little girl didn't need to see, or hear, that type of hostility. Jon could tell by the shrug and her tone of voice that she was still unhappy with him. Not that he could blame her. He had already admitted to himself that he was an ass. Now it was a good time for him to man up and admit he was wrong to her, and apologize.

"Look Mats, about earlier, after we hung up I thought about our disagreement, and I'm sorry. You were right, I was an ass. I never intended to sound hostile when answering your question. I just thought that you had told me it would help my mood to keep me on the phone, and then you were gonna crush me. I thought, if that was the case, maybe if I told you how I had planned to tell Sadie about the whole Cincinnati part of her life that it would help change your mind. I want you to stay in her life and I can't see how we can make this all work if you don't move to Tampa with me, so I really was only trying to help. I promise, in the future, I'll think before I speak and I won't take your questions too seriously anymore."

Mattie smiled. "Thank you. I'm glad you realized you were in the wrong. But while we're apologizing I guess I should also say I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to be a bitch, I was just genuinely intrigued by the fact you thought I would actually tell you I would help your mood, when I was actually going to crush it more instead. To be completely honest, the fact you thought that kind of hurt me. I thought we were better friends than that."

Jon shook his head. "You have nothing to apologize for. You had every right to question me. I jumped to conclusions way too fast. I know I can be an ass and I have a tendency to be quite difficult to deal with at times. If I become unbearable, or annoying and I'm at a point where talking to me isn't possible, you can just walk away. I'll be honest, I may get mad at first, but as soon as I realize why you walked away, I'll be okay. Think we can make that work?"

Mattie smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I think we can work with that. For right now, I have to get Sadie ready to head out. Promised her I'd take her to the park today after her nap, so I better keep my promise. I'll talk to you later," Mattie told him.

"Alright, sounds good. Can you put Sadie back on real quick so I can say goodbye?" Mattie smiled.

"Sure thing, hold one," Mattie turned the phone back in the direction Sadie had toddled toward after she took the phone back earlier. "Sadie, come say goodbye to daddy so we can go to the park."

Jon watched his screen as his daughters little face popped back up on it. "Bye baby girl, I love you. Have fun at the park. I'll see you in a few days," he told her.

She waved her chubby little hand at the screen. "Bye-bye, dada."

Mattie pulled the phone back, the huge smile plastered on her face mirrored the one Jon had on his. "Well, if my decision news didn't help your mood any, I _know_ that did! Goodbye Jon, try to enjoy the rest of your day. We'll see you in a few days."

Jon nodded. "Alright sounds good, goodbye." He disconnected the facetime chat from his phone, smile still firmly in place. Hearing his daughter talk for the first time was awesome; especially hearing her say 'dada'. He was pretty sure nothing was gonna be able to ruin the rest of his day.


	9. Chapter Eight

**Chapter Eight**

* * *

**Author's Note: First, thanks to everyone who has followed, Favorited, and reviewed. I love reading the reviews. Second, I wrote this chapter during the time The Shield had the mini feud with Christian and the Usos earlier this month, so that's why I used Christian as Dean's opponent for the match. Three of the four matches I talk about were the real matches; the fourth one was made up for the sole purpose of this story.**

* * *

Jon found himself in Stanford, Connecticut, at WWE's Head Quarters. He was sitting in Mr. McMahon's office awaiting his and Paul Levesque's, or Triple H, as most of the fans would know him, arrivals. It had been a week since Mattie had made her decision to make the move, and Jon had only been home once for a span of two days. That definitely was not enough time to baby proof the apartment, or to prepare either guest room for occupants, and Mattie wanted to get moved as soon as possible. She had given her two week's notice at work last week, so she had to finish out this week and then she was free to go.

That's why today Jon found himself sitting in his boss's office awaiting their arrivals. He had to fill them in on all the new developments in his life. He was hoping by telling them everything, with any luck, that they'd give him two weeks off, just to get his apartment set up and help get Mattie and Sadie moved in. He figured a week of baby proofing and room decorating, and then a week of helping them move in and get settled would be plenty. Once they were completely settled, he could return to the road. Now he was just hoping his boss's would agree with him.

Vince McMahon entered the office first, Paul Levesque hot on his heels. "So Jon, to what do we owe this impromptu meeting you had to call with us?" Vince asked, taking a seat in the big black leather chair behind his desk; Paul propped himself on the corner of the heavy desk to Jon's right.

"Well, it's a bit of a lengthy story, so please bear with me. About a month ago, you guys had given The Shield a few days off, so Colby, Joe and I all went back to Tampa for a little R and R so we could properly prepare for the next leg of the tour. Well, after the break was over, I got to the airport before Colby and Joe. While I was awaiting them and our plane for our flight to Orlando for the house show that was that weekend, I accidentally bumped into my ex-girlfriend's best friend. Not literally mind you. You see, she had a seventeen-month-old little girl with her who happened to walk up to me while I was sitting in a café near our gate eating a snack and waiting for Colby and Joe. I was talking to the little girl when my ex's best friend's voice caught my attention as she was calling the baby back to her." Jon paused briefly; letting Vince and Paul process what he'd told them so far. "Well, it turns out, I didn't know it, but that little girl that approached me randomly is my daughter." Again he paused briefly. He knew from experience he had to tell this story in parts, or it was hard to grasp.

"So you slept with your ex-girlfriend's best friend ad had a child with her, and didn't know it?" Paul asked. Jon shook his head.

"No actually, the baby is my ex's and mine. My ex never informed me she was pregnant because I had just signed with the WWE and she didn't want to be the reason my dreams got crushed again. I get why she did it, but I'm still to this day, not happy about it." Jon paused, allowing his boss's to digest everything he'd just told them. "Anyway, I guess at this point you're wondering why my ex's best friend has our baby and she doesn't, right? I know I was, so on our flight to Orlando, I sat with Mattie, that's the best friend's name, and she told me that my ex had died while she was giving birth to Sadie, that's my daughter's name. Well, actually it's Satyana, but I prefer Sadie. Anyway, Mattie adopted her after she was released from the hospital, but she never had the courts terminate my parental rights for abandoning the baby. Not that that would have been fair because I technically never abandoned her, as I didn't even know she existed." Jon knew he was rambling, so he had to get to his point before both of his boss's told him to shut up.

"Alright, I know I'm rambling, sorry. This is still fairly new to me, and I've never told the story before, so it's hard. Anyway, my point is because my rights were never terminated I can still be a part of her life, and I want to be because I refuse to be the dead beat dad my own father was to me while I was growing up. With that being said, I suggested to Mattie that she and Sadie move to Tampa to live with me so I can help raise her properly, and after some lengthy debating and thinking it over, she agreed." Jon paused again for another couple moments, again letting them catch up to speed with everything he'd just thrown at them. "Of course, now's where you guys would come in. My apartment is nowhere near ready for a baby to live in it; especially not a baby that is already mobile. I have to set up a room for Mattie and make a nursery for Sadie, as well as baby proof the place so Sadie doesn't manage to get hurt. Obviously two days at home during the week isn't going to allow enough time for that, so if there's any way I can get a couple weeks off from the road just to set my apartment up and get them moved in, that would be great. Once they're moved in and completely settled I'll gladly return to the road. If you can't give me the time off, it's fine. I will come up with another solution. I'm not making any demands here. I don't want you to think I'm demanding this. That's not it at all. I'm just simply making a request, so don't feel like you have to say yes. It'd be nice, but I know you're not obligated to help us with our personal lives if it doesn't directly affect our professional lives."

The room fell silent for several minutes after Jon finished telling them what was going on before Paul finally spoke up. "If we give you off for two weeks how do we explain our United States Champion's suddenly random absence to the fans; especially if Colby and Joe are still out there competing? The fans are used to seeing three members of The Shield, not just two. Even when it's not a six-man tag, you still walk out with them to wish them luck. Fans will surely notice you're missing. What do we tell them?"

Jon understood where he was coming from, and he knew requesting the time off was a long shot, but he had to at least try. "Maybe we can stage an injury? One that is bad enough to send me for "tests", so I'm off-screen for a few weeks, but not bad enough for surgery?" Jon suggested. He wasn't quite done fighting for the time off. Paul smirked.

"That could work. Now, you just have to think of what type of injury you could sustain to make fans believe you're legitimately injured, and come up with an idea of how you should return?"

After thinking about it for about five minutes Jon finally said "I have a history of dislocated shoulder's; did it twice in FCW. We could say I did that again, or we at least think that's what happened. Anybody that knows Dean's history will believe it because, as I said, it's already happened twice. As for my return, I could interfere in a match and help Colby and Joe retain their titles? Only, this time we ditch the DQ decision. I say we have the ref get knocked out, and then I come in. Before the ref comes to I can hide somewhere while they get the win and retain their titles." Jon threw out the ideas as Vince nodded his head.

"The injury would be believable, and I love the return idea. You're going a little old school, and we haven't done that in awhile. Alright, I say we go for it. You can have the two weeks. Paul, call Stephanie and let her know there's been a slight change in the Dean Ambrose/Christian U.S Title match for RAW. Make sure she makes it clear to the writing team that we still want him to go over, but it'll be at a price. Now there will be an injury; a dislocated shoulder, that puts him out for a couple weeks." Paul nodded and got on the phone to call his wife as Vince dismissed Jon. "We'll see you tomorrow for Raw. Let Colby and Joe know what's going on, too so they're not confused when you disappear." Jon nodded.

"They know everything already. We're too close for me to keep this from them. They'd pry it out of me if I tried," Jon said, laughing. "I told them I was requesting two weeks off, but I'll let them know it's been granted and fill them in on how we're going about all of it. Thank you so much," Jon said, standing up to shake both Vince and Paul's hands. "I'll see you both tomorrow before I leave the arena to head to the airport. Thanks again," Jon said, heading out of the locker room to find Colby and Joe and fill them in on the latest developments.

* * *

The next night on RAW, Jon sat in his locker room, putting on his gear. His match was up in twenty minutes. As per-usual, Seth and Roman would walk Dean to the top of the stairs, they'd do their signature fist bump 'good luck' thing, and then Dean would go defend his championship alone with absolutely no outside help. It was odd because usually when Seth and Roman weren't booked to defend their titles, or even a non-title match, they'd be booked to interfere and get him disqualified, so he could retain his title. But that was not to be the case tonight. Tonight, before the match, the writers had them do a backstage segment where Dean told them they were not to get involved under any circumstances because he wanted to defend, and retain, his title on his own. They didn't like the idea, but they had reluctantly agreed.

That segment had been done about an hour ago. Now here he sat, hands tapped up to just past his wrists, white t-shirt on, vest hugging his shoulders and torso, boots laced up and tied tight, hair slicked back. It was time to go stage the first injury he had ever purposely staged in his WWE career. Jon was a good actor, so he had absolutely no doubt he could pull this off and make the fans believe he was legitimately injured. Most times fans were leery about approaching him on the street because both Jon Moxley and Dean Ambrose were, and are psychotic type characters; unpredictable characters. The fact fans thought Jonathan Good was the same as his former and current character proved he played the characters to a T! So he had no worries about staging an injury.

What he did worry about was just how good his opponent would be in helping him sell it. Jay Reso, or Christian, as fans would know him, was a veteran, so he should be good at this. Jon's only issue was that they didn't know each other that well. They had only done in ring work with him a total of four times thus far; one was a three-on-one attack with Colby and Joe, another was a singles match that barely went anywhere before Colby and Joe jumped into it causing a disqualification, and the third and four were both six-man-tag matches against Christian and The Usos. He had lost the first one for his team after being speared and pinned by Christian; but he got his revenge the following Monday when he hit his signature headlock driver and pinned Christian. The match they were going into now was supposed to be the "tie breaker" between the two; to end the feud between them.

So far, with the little work they had done, he had no reason to distrust Jay in the ring. He'd talked to him a few times in the backstage area regarding their matches, and so far their matches had been the kind that got the fans all riled up and into them, so he was hoping tonight would be no different. Even with the added injury staging.

Jon's time wasting was up. He had to get to the top of the arena to make his entrance and complete his last match before his two week hiatus. He hadn't informed Mattie of the plan yet. He figured he'd do that once his match was complete and he had more time to think about everything. For now, he had to concentrate on his match so he wouldn't legitimately injure himself. He didn't mind staging an injury, but if he actually got hurt, that could throw a monkey wrench into his plans to help Mattie move into his place, and that wasn't what he had planned. So from this point on, his mind was clear and he was in "Dean Ambrose mode", thinking of nothing but coming out of this match against Christian healthy, and without a legitimate injury.


	10. Chapter Nine

**Chapter Nine**

**Author's Note: Thanks for all the reviews, follows and favorites. Glad you guys are liking it. To those that have complimented my writing, thank you. As I've told you, it means a lot because I don't think I'm that great, so to hear others tell me I'm better than I think I am is an awesome feeling.**

**This is the longest Chapter I've gotten written yet! I'll give you a chapter teaser before you actually start reading: Jon just about completely flips out. Now, go read the actual chapter to find out why! ;)**

* * *

Dean's final match against Christian last night went off without a hitch. The injury angle had played out perfectly, from what Jon could tell. It had only been one day since the match had taken place, but the WWE personnel that were tuned to the internet through social media accounts had told him all the fans on each avenue of social media truly believed Dean had dislocated his shoulder again. Jon couldn't have scripted it any better, nor could he thank Jay enough for helping him sell the injury on such short notice.

He had only been home from the road on his "injury leave" for one day but so far, he had managed to baby proof the kitchen and living room accordingly. Next, he planned on setting up Sadie's room. This was the biggest challenge he'd encountered in this whole process thus far. He had no idea how to decorate a baby's nursery; he'd only ever decorated his room, and he didn't do much to it; just painted his walls the color he wanted them and chose the bedding he wanted on his bed. Not to mention, Sadie was a girl. How in the hell was he supposed to know how to decorate a little girl's room? That was the burning question in his mind at the moment. Deciding his best bet was a trip to Babies R Us he grabbed his wallet, phone and keys and headed out the door.

* * *

So now, there he stood, in the center of Babies R Us staring at cribs, strollers, car seats, and every other baby item humanly possible. He never realized how many items a baby actually needed. They were so tiny, yet from the looks of it, they had a lot of belongings. Jon was so overwhelmed by all the baby paraphernalia surrounding him he was completely frozen in his place. He had absolutely no idea where to even begin looking in the store for what he needed to start Sadie's nursery.

"May I help you with something, sir?" A sales clerk asked him.

"I… I honestly am not sure," Jon stuttered a bit. "All I came here to do was look for ideas for my daughter's nursery. I never realized just how many components babies actually needed in their everyday life. Now I'm just overwhelmed and have no idea where to begin looking," Jon said, rubbing his hands over his face. The sales clerk laughed lightly; Jon remembered her name badge indicating her name was Stacy. He had taken a quick glance at it when she approached him a few seconds earlier.

"It's normal for first time parents to be a little overwhelmed by all the paraphernalia; especially first time fathers. Mom's are usually a little less overwhelmed because of all the items cuteness," she chuckled a bit. "Did you, or your wife have a specific nursery theme in mind?" She asked.

Jon shook his head "No, and I'm not married. I'm a single father. Well, sort of. Long story short, my daughter is almost eighteen-months-old; I didn't know about her until two weeks ago. Her mother passed away giving birth to her, so her mother's best friend adopted her, and currently has custody of her, and they'll both be moving in with me next week, so I can be a hands-on father. So I wanted to have her nursery done before they arrived, but now I'm not sure that's going to happen." Jon couldn't believe he just told a complete stranger the gist of his problem; he was normally a reserved and private person, and here he was spilling his guts to some sales clerk he didn't know from Eve. Sadie wasn't even living with him yet and already she was changing him. He had yet to decide if that was for the best, or worst.

Stacy frowned a bit. "Well, I'm sorry to hear that. You said your daughter is almost eighteen-months old, so why don't we start over here in the toddler bed room/nursery section. Do you have a crib? Jon shook his head, then shrugged, "No, but I'm guessing her adopted mom probably does." Stacy nodded.

"Okay well, let's walk over here to the nursery décor and see if you see anything that you think she may like." Jon followed her over to the décor section and began looking at the boarders and mural options. That's when he realized there was no way he'd have any idea what Sadie would like to look at every day. He had no idea what her favorite characters were, or what her favorite baby show to watch was, or what color she loved. He had no clue what her personality was like. He had no idea who his own child was!

Suddenly, all the aggravation toward Kaelyn seemed to resurface, and his disappointment in Mattie also reappeared. He should know his child's likes and dislikes; loves and hates; he should know her personality by this point in her life, and thanks to his ex-girlfriend, he didn't have a damn clue. "I… I can't do this. Thanks for your help, Stacy, but I'll have to come back," Jon said, slowly backing out of the aisle and nearly running for the exit, leaving Stacy standing dumbfounded in the aisle.

* * *

Jon could feel his blood pressure beginning to rise as his face turned red once again due to both his anger toward Kaelyn and his embarrassment of having to bail out of the store in front of a complete stranger. He was right back to absolutely hating Kaelyn for not telling him about Sadie from the beginning. He hated that he had missed nearly eighteen-months of his daughter's life thanks to her mother, who thought it would be a brilliant idea not to tell him she existed. He wasn't sure he'd ever forgive her for keeping Sadie a secret from him.

All of that, of course, brought him to Mattie. She had also kept Sadie a secret from him for the last eighteen-months. It made him question if she could be trusted. If she would keep his daughter from him for eighteen-months, at the dying wish of her best friend, could he trust her to tell him things about Sadie in the future that he needed to know? Like if he was on the road and Sadie got sick, would she call and tell him, or leave him in the dark until he got home? If Sadie got injured and needed to go to the ER, would she call to let him know, or let him find out when he finally returned home, or worse, when the emergency room invoice surfaced in the mail? Jon had a ton of questions that needed to be answered before they made this living arrangement official.

* * *

Arriving home, he walked into his apartment and threw his keys and wallet on the table inside his front door before walking into the living room pulling his phone out of his pocket. Sitting down on the sofa, he scrolled through his contacts list until he found Mattie's name and tapping it to get to the 'send' button. Hitting it forcefully, he pressed the device to the side of his head and listened to the line ring; he was determined to get to the bottom of this now. He wanted everything out in the open. He wanted, no he needed, to know he could trust her. He needed to know Sadie would be safe and he would know every detail of her life while he was on the road. He had to know she'd tell him everything. He needed to be able to trust her every word or this arrangement was not going to work for them.

"Hey Jon," Mattie said as she picked up the phone.

"Hi. We need to talk," he said, cutting right to the point.

Mattie didn't like his tone of voice. It was way too serious; demanding. He almost sounded like he was in his Dean Ambrose character. That fact alone scared Mattie. The Ambrose character was borderline scary when he got into a mood, so she didn't wanna test him when he sounded like this. "Okay, what about?"

"I was planning to do Sadie's nursery today, and I ran into a problem; a _big_ problem," Jon said, stressing the word big, so she'd get that it wasn't some stupid thing that was easily solvable.

"Okay, well what was this 'big problem'?" She asked, still worried by his dark tone of voice.

"Mattie, I don't know my daughter," Jon exclaimed loudly into the phone. "What does she like? What's her favorite color? What's her favorite TV show? What foods does she eat? She's nearly eighteen-months, and I have no idea who she is. I couldn't tell you if she has an uptight personality or if she's mellow and laid back. I realized this while standing in the nursery décor aisle at Babies R Us. Do you know how embarrassing it is to all but admit to a store clerk; a complete stranger, mind you; that you have no idea who your child is? Do you?" Jon asked; he was just about shouting at her now.

"Calm down, Jon. I will help you decorate her nursery once we get there, and I will tell you all over her favorites and all over her dislikes. As a matter of fact, I have ninety-eight percent of her first eighteen-months on video. You can watch them any time you want. I know that doesn't make up for missing the first eighteen-months, but it's the best I can do. I've already apologized, I can't apologize anymore," Mattie said. "As for her personality, you will quickly learn she's exactly like you; for the most part, she's laid back, but if you piss her off she becomes quite the fireball," Mattie informed him.

"Calm down? Mattie, I DON'T KNOW MY OWN CHILD!" Jon said, just about ignoring what Mattie had told him and loosing what cool remained of his temper. "And no, videos do not make up for me not knowing my daughter. And do you know what's worse about all of this? The more I think about it, the more I hate Kaelyn because she kept her from me, and the more I hate her, the more disappointed I am in you because you knew everything, and even after she was gone you still decided to keep Sadie away from me. You easily could have found me. We both know if you really wanted Sadie to know she had at least one biological parent who cared about her, you would have looked me up and come to find me," Jon all but shouted at her.

Mattie wanted to defend herself again, but Jon didn't give her the chance. "All of that, leads me to my next point, how do I know I can trust you? If you wouldn't even look me up to find me and inform me that I had a daughter who needed me, and you admitted if I hadn't figured it out on my own, you weren't going to tell me, so don't try to deny it now. If I can't trust you to tell me she even existed, how can I trust you to live here and help me raise her? I wanna know everything that happens while I'm on the road, and I'm honestly not sure I can trust you to tell me every detail because you kept her existence from me," Jon said, anger clearly evident in his tone of voice.

Mattie completely understood where he was coming from. She knew she had a long ways to go to prove she was worth trusting, and that she really did want to tell him from the beginning, but it initially wasn't her place, and after Kaelyn was gone, she didn't want to betray her friend. She knew it was wrong, but Kaelyn was her best friend! You don't just go against your dead best friend's wishes a day after she's gone. She knew she was in for the biggest challenge of her life. Jon wasn't an easy guy to crack when it came to being trust worthy; he didn't trust just anyone. That's what happens when you grow up with no father and a mother who is more interested in drugs and alcohol than her own child. But Mattie was determined. If getting Jon to trust her would allow her to stay in Sadie's life she was willing to do it because she loved the little girl like she was her biological daughter. "So what are you saying, Jon? If you're saying you don't want me moving in with you, I have no choice. I can't back out of this now. I already gave my job notice. They're transferring me to the branch in Florida. The plane tickets are already booked, I got out of my lease, and pretty much all my and Sadie's belongings are packed up in boxes ready to be loaded onto the U-Haul. Please don't do this to me now. I'm begging you not to do this to me now!" Mattie all but cried.

Jon shook his head even though she couldn't see him. "No, that's not what I'm saying. I saying I want you to tell me I can trust you; I want you to tell me you won't keep anything about Sadie from me from here on out; I want to know that when I'm out on tour, I'll still know exactly what's going on in my daughter's life. I wanna know I'll know when she's hurt, sick, happy, sad, frustrated, aggravated; I wanna know _everything!_ Tell me you'll tell me _everything_. Just tell me you're trust worthy because right now, I'm not so sure you are. I need you to convince and reassure me, Mattie, that's what I want; I want you to convince and reassure me!"

Mattie had no idea how to do that verbally. She could only convince him she was trustworthy by showing him and proving it to him. "Jon, I won't keep a damn thing about Sadie from you from here out, but me telling you that won't convince you; it may reassure you for now, but that's a temporary fix. Look, I know you're stubborn, and I know because of your upbringing, you don't trust people easily, and I don't blame you for that. I'm the same way due to my upbringing, so I totally get it. But I can't just tell you, you can trust me; I have to show you I'm completely serious about this. We both know that."

Jon knew she was right. She could tell him she was trustworthy until they were both blue in the face, but he wouldn't believe her until she actually proved it to him. "You're right," Jon said, sighing as his temper began to return to normal. Once he took a few deep breaths, and he was totally calmed down he spoke again. "Alright, I guess I'll wait for you to get here to work on her nursery. I wanted it done before she got here, but oh well. On the bright side, I did manage to baby proof the living room and kitchen. All drawers and cabinets have baby safety locks on them, so she can't pinch her fingers playing with them, and all outlets that aren't in use have new safety covers over them, so she can't put her fingers near them." Mattie laughed.

"Good job, Mr. Handy Man! Keep those tools handy, though, she's got quite a few toys that I had to take apart to pack up to be placed on the U-Haul. They'll have to be re-assembled when they finally arrive there." Now it was Jon's turn to laugh.

"Okay, I will. Oh, I know what I didn't tell you. I'll be here with you all next week after you guys arrive. I managed to get two weeks off from the tour to help get you guys moved in and situated before I am required to head back out." Mattie nodded.

"That's awesome. Well, I have to go. I have to be at work in forty-five minutes. I'll talk to you tonight before I put Sadie to bed."

"Alright, I'll talk to you then," Jon said as they both hung up. He felt much better about the whole situation now. Still wasn't feeling very secure about Mattie's loyalty, but he was going to have to give her a chance to prove herself. Time would tell if he was doing the right thing, or getting himself into big trouble.


	11. Chapter Ten

**Author's Note: I am heading on vacation to Tampa, Florida at 10:00 tonight, and there's no WiFi connection at my grandparents condo. Only place I'll have internet access is at my aunt's house when we're there on Thursday. If I can get another chapter up while I'm there, I will; if not, you can expect the next chapter either next Wednesday or Thursday after I get home. On the bright side, the lack of internet means I'll be writing a lot more of this story. I have up to chapter 14 typed up and ready to be proof read and posted so far; by the time I get back from Florida, I wouldn't be surprised if I have 25-30 chapters typed and ready to be proofed and posted because I won't have much else to do. Haha. Anyway, I just wanted to let you guys know I wasn't slowing down or giving up on the story, I just won't have internet. Stick with me! For now, here's chapter 10 to try to help tide you over until I can get another update posted.**

* * *

**Chapter Ten**

* * *

Jon sat in the terminal of the airport, awaiting Mattie and Sadie. The last week had flown by quickly as he continued to baby proof his apartment and prepare for Mattie and Sadie's pending arrival. He made sure Sadie's room was completely baby proof; all electrical outlets were covered with safe covers, all heavy things were anchored to the wall, all wires or strings that hung down from something and could be within her reach, were lifted out of her reach and tied into place, so she couldn't reach them and accidentally strangle or choke herself. He also made sure the ceiling fan and attached light in the room were in working order. In addition to her room, he also made sure he had a car seat secured in the back seat of his car, so he could take her places with him whenever he was home.

Now Jon stood at the window watching the plane Mattie and Sadie were boarded on touchdown and taxi down the runway to the hanger to allow the passengers off. He watched the airport attendant open the door to the hanger and felt the butterflies begin to flutter in his stomach. He hadn't felt this nervous since his first wrestling match back when he was seventeen. This was going to be the start of a whole new chapter in his life. He'd never lived with any other female outside his mom, but she was never home. He was usually at their apartment fending for himself while he was out 'working', finding her fix, or drinking herself into oblivion. This was going to be different, and completely new to him. He never even lived with Kaelyn when they were dating. Sure, they stayed at each others apartments, and they had belongs at one another's places so they wouldn't always have to pack a bag to come over, but they never lived together. Now that he was actually gonna be living with a female, he hoped and prayed he wouldn't screw it up.

Mattie carried a sleeping Sadie into the airport. Looking around, she finally spotted Jon standing near the window, staring back at her. Adjusting Sadie, so she wouldn't slide out of her arms as gravity pulled the dead weight of her sleeping body down in Mattie's arms; she also adjusted her carryon bag, and the diaper bag on her other shoulder as she walked toward him. "Hi," she said, once again adjusting Sadie, who seemed to be super slippery today, as Mattie attempted to balance her dead weight and the bags on her shoulders.

"Hey. Uhh, do you want me to take something?" Mattie shrugged.

"You can if you want to, but I can't force you to take anything."

Jon wasn't sure if he should take Sadie, or one of the two bags on her shoulders. Actually, he knew he wanted to take his daughter, but he was afraid he'd wake her up if he took her from Mattie. "To be honest, I want to hold Sadie, but if you think she'll wake up because we shift her body, then I'll take one of the bags instead." Mattie shook her head.

"No, I'm pretty sure she's completely knocked out. She didn't even budge when the plane touched down on the run way." Jon didn't have to be convinced any more then that before he reached out for his daughter, gently pulling her from Mattie's arms and placing her against his chest. Mattie was right, she barely moved, outside of adjusting her head on Jon's chest and snuggling into his shirt. It was odd, but despite the fact she was nothing but dead weight due to being asleep, he loved the feeling of just having her in his arms.

"Do you need to grab anything from baggage claim?" Mattie shook her head.

"No, I only brought her diaper bag and this duffle bag with enough clothes for about a week. Everything else is in the U-Haul. It should be here with the rest of our belongings either tomorrow or Tuesday." Jon nodded.

"Okay then, let's head home." Jon laughed "That sounds so weird." Mattie smiled and nodded.

"You're right, it kind of does. We'll get use to it eventually, tough," Mattie agreed.

Jon led Mattie out to his car and popped the trunk so she could place her duffle bag in there, while he opened the back door and slowly placed Sadie into her car seat. Mattie watched him buckle her into the safety seat and smirked. "I see you braved Babies R Us again, or did you borrow that seat?" Jon laughed.

"No, I bought it, thank you very much. Yes, I braved Babies R Us again. Ran into the same clerk that I kind of freaked out when I ran out of there the day I was trying to work on Sadie's nursery. She was surprised to see me back in there, too, but she helped me pick the best and safest seat for Sadie. I think going back in there proved to her that I was serious about this whole parenting thing. The day I ran out, I'm pretty sure she thought I was going to be a dead beat dad." Mattie gave him a little smile.

"Nah, you're not the abandoning type. Probably because you know what being abandoned feels like. Anyway, about the seat, was it her idea to go with a pink seat, or yours?" Mattie asked, chuckling. Jon rolled his eyes.

"No, it was mine. She's a girl, I wasn't getting her a blue or green car seat, and black and gray were too original. I wanted her to have an interesting seat to sit in." Mattie burst out laughing.

"You do know it's not unique anymore, right? Most parents who have a baby girl get their daughter a pink car seat, or they get purple. But most go with pink." Jon shook his head as he opened the driver side door.

"I didn't say it was unique, I just said it's not original. Besides, my first choice was purple, but all the purple seats they had were either ugly, or sold out." Mattie nodded. He had a point, he didn't say it was unique, he said it was interesting. Opening the passenger's side door, she plopped herself into the seat and snapped her seatbelt into place as Jon cranked the engine, bringing it to life.

As they drove home, the ride was mostly silent until Jon finally spoke. "How long has Sadie been asleep?" Mattie shrugged.

"About forty-five minutes. She should be up in about an hour or so. She doesn't usually sleep longer than two hours; two in a-half-hours on a 'good' day." Jon nodded.

"Well, I figured you were bringing her regular crib, right?" Mattie nodded.

"Yeah, but it's on the U-Haul." Jon shrugged.

"That's fine. I was just gonna say while I was at Babies R Us picking up the car seat, I decided to grab a Pack 'N Play, so she'd have something to sleep in until her crib arrives." Mattie laughed.

"Good thinking! I could've brought the Pack 'N Play that I have for her, but I never even thought about it." Jon shrugged.

"We'll consider that my 'parent initiation' then," Jon said, winking at Mattie. Mattie couldn't help but laugh.

"Okay, if that's what you want," Mattie said, still stifling a chuckle.

The rest of the ride was silent. When they finally arrived back at the condo, Mattie pulled her bag out of the trunk and put the diaper bag on her shoulder while Jon unhooked Sadie from her car seat and gently pulled her into his arms, once again letting her snuggle her head into his chest as she continued to snooze away.

They walked into the apartment, but instead of heading toward her new room to lay her down in the portable crib, Jon walked over to the sofa, lazily kicked off his shoes beside the sofa and laid down with Sadie still snuggled into his broad chest. Mattie furrowed her brow. "What are you doing?" She whispered.

"I don't wanna put her down yet, so I'm just gonna lay here with her." Mattie shook her head.

"Be careful doing that, Jon, you'll spoil her," she warned.

"I won't do it every day. I just wanna do it today. She's comfortable, and it's the first time in almost a month I've actually gotten to hold her," he said, rubbing Sadie's back gently. Mattie just shook her head.

"I'll be in my room, unpacking my duffel bag. I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Okay, you're room is the second door on the left hand side of the hallway," Jon quietly called after her.

* * *

Mattie unpacked her duffel bag and undid some things from Sadie's diaper bag before returning to the living room. What she saw when she walked in just about melted her heart. Jon had fallen asleep, his hand wrapped around Sadie's back and Sadie's cheek pressed against his chest as her face was snuggled into the side of his neck. It was the most precious thing Mattie had seen in awhile. Sadie had only known her father for about a month, and hadn't been around him that much up to this point, but Mattie already had a feeling she was going to be one of those diehard daddy's girls, and Jon was going to make an awesome dad, despite the fact he didn't have a dad growing up. Most guys that grew up with no father would've booked it the second they found out they were going to be a father because not having a father growing up made them assume they couldn't be one themselves. Jon was obviously completely different; the complete opposite.

Mattie still to this day didn't understand why Kaelyn had wanted to keep him out of Sadie's life. She understood Kaelyn didn't wanna ruin his career, but he was going to balance his career and fatherhood at the same time now, just like every other guy does, so why couldn't he have done it then? It made no sense to her, but all that mattered now was the fact he was finally in her life, and he was going to get the chance to be the best father ever.


	12. Chapter Eleven

**Author's Note: It's been brought to my attention that some low life is going around stealing my story and posting it to make it look like some five year old did it. I am not happy about this, and that person has been reported. If I get no results by the time I return home from vacation on Wednesday, I will be emailing the admins again, and I won't stop until I get results. Nothing pisses me off more than low life people who run around on the internet like they're hot shots. I won't let this low life stop me from writing my story, since I'm fairly sure that's their plan. And if so, consider your plan ruined, you low life.**

**Anyway, I told you I'd try to get an update out while I was at my aunt's house where I have internet access, so here ya go, here's the next chapter. I won't be able to get anymore out until I return home, so enjoy chapter eleven until then.**

* * *

**Chapter Eleven**

* * *

Later on that day, after Sadie and Jon had finally woken up from their nap, Mattie agreed to make them all dinner. Unfortunately, Jon hadn't gone food shopping in the last few days, so she was limited on the dinner options. Making a mental note to make up a grocery list and hit the store tomorrow, Mattie surveyed her limited options among the refrigerator and cabinets. Throwing on two pots of boiling water, she quickly decided to make macaroni and cheese, hot dogs and broccoli. It was quick, easy, and most importantly, Sadie could eat it with a little help; as long as the hot dog and macaroni and cheese was cut into small pieces so she could chew them easily. She couldn't have the broccoli, but Mattie had made sure to bring a little baby food package of apple sauce in her diaper bag, so she could have that instead.

While Mattie was in the kitchen preparing dinner, Jon sat in the living room watching Sadie crawl around on the living room floor playing with some of her little toys that he'd pulled from her diaper bag after they had woken up. Even though she could walk, she apparently found crawling easier when it came time to play. Jon never thought watching your child play with toys could be so satisfying, but just knowing he'd get to do this on a more regular basis made him smile. It was such a simple task, but when you'd missed watching your child do it for so long, it felt almost as big as watching their first steps, or hearing their first words. The feeling was just indescribable.

Jon was so lost in thought he didn't realize Sadie had stood up and walked over to him until she was standing right in front of him lightly smacking at the hand had had subconsciously rested on his thigh, yelling "dada, dada" trying to get his attention. "What, baby girl?" Jon asked, a smile still plastered across his face.

She held the toy in her little hand out toward him "pay." Mattie was just walking into the living room to ask Jon to get Sadie ready for dinner when she heard Sadie's little voice asking Jon to play with her. Knowing this would be a great 'bonding moment' for the two of them she turned back toward the kitchen and didn't even bother to let them know she had seen the interaction. Or so she thought, but Jon had seen her retreating form before she was out of sight. He didn't bother letting her know he saw her because he knew she had walked away to give him a chance to play and bond with Sadie.

"Okay, let's play. But we only have a few minutes because I think mommy almost has dinner ready, and then you're going to need to get your bath afterward," Jon told her, despite the fact he'd lost her attention after he said he'd play with her. She grabbed another toy and shoved it in his direction. "What are we playing?" He asked, watching his daughter shove toy after toy in his general direction before she had no toys left to push toward him. She giggled as she looked at the toy build up around his feet. "Okay missy that was not playing that was 'let's attack daddy with toys'. I don't think so. Come here, you!" Jon laughed, grabbing Sadie and pulling her toward him as he started tickling her. She started giggling uncontrollably, squirming in a futile attempt to get away from the onslaught of fingers her father was tickling her with. Giving up on the tickling her after few minutes, Jon laid back on the floor holding her above his head in the 'airplane' position, watching her continue to giggle as she reached down toward his face.

Mattie turned off the burners to the stove as the hot dogs and macaroni finished cooking and followed the sound of Sadie's uncontrollable giggles into the living room. She once again found herself standing in the door way watching the father/daughter duo; only this time, she was watching them actually play. The whole scene just melted her heart. Watching the exchange made her glad she'd abandoned her friend's dying wish and admitted the truth to Jon. They'd only been here less than a day, and you could already tell Jon planed to be as good of a father as his career would allow him to be, and clearly, Sadie was enjoying every second of it. If there was any doubt left before that Sadie was indeed going to be a daddy's girl, it was completely erased with the scene playing out in front of her.

* * *

Mattie hated to break up their little bonding moment, but Sadie had to eat and get her bath before bed. But before she decided to interrupt their moment, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and snapped a picture. These were the moment's cell phone cameras were invented for; the moments that belonged in photos when you had no camera around to commemorate the memory. She didn't realize she had her camera flash on until it was too late. The flash went off as she snapped the photo, catching Jon and Sadie's attention. Mattie blushed, realizing she was caught. "I was trying to do that without getting caught. Damn flash setting," she mumbled. Jon laughed.

"Well, that's too bad. I want that photo sent to my phone, too, by the way," he exclaimed.

Mattie just nodded as she turned back toward the kitchen. "Yeah, yeah," she mumbled. "Could you get Sadie ready to eat dinner while I set the table?" She called over her shoulder. Jon nodded before realizing he had no idea how to get her ready for dinner. What exactly did getting her ready entail?

"Uhh Mattie, I have no problem getting her ready. As her father, it's my job, but I do have one question," he called after her as he stood up, Sadie secured on his hip as he followed Mattie.

Mattie couldn't help but laugh "Okay, what's your question?"

"How exactly am I supposed to get her ready? I've never done this before, so I have no idea what that entails."

Mattie shrugged. "All you have to do is take a baby wipe or wash cloth, and wipe her hands just to be sure she has no dirt on her hands. The way she plays, dirt on her hands is always a possibility. Her wipes are in her diaper bag if you wanna use one of those. After she's cleaned up, I usually put her bib around her neck and stick her in her high chair..." Mattie trailed off, glancing around the kitchen. For the first time, she realized they had no seat to feed Sadie in. Well, she had one, but it was on the U-Haul, which obviously wasn't here yet. Jon saw her glancing around the room and realized the same thing she did.

Quickly thinking on his feet, Jon shouts "I have an idea," and runs out the front door, Sadie still tucked securely in his arms as he ran. Mattie was confused. What idea could he possibly have that entailed running outside with Sadie in his arms? Before she could follow him to find out, he came walking back inside, Sade strapped into her stroller. "For tonight, we use her stroller. If the U-Haul isn't here by tomorrow, we'll go to Babies R Us and get her one of those travel booster seat high chair things; that you can attach to a regular chair to feed her in until the U-Haul arrives. Once it does, we'll just use the travel seat for when we go away." Mattie laughed. It was clear to see he was already gaining the attributes needed to be a father, thinking on his feet and making quick decisions in the best interest of his child. And Kaelyn wanted to keep his child from him? Yup, it still didn't make a lick of sense to Mattie. Letting that thought slip to the back of her mind once again, she refocused on the scene in front of her.

"I didn't even think of that. You're catching on and learning quickly, I'll give you that." Jon just smiled.

"I've always caught onto things quickly, and learning was just another tool I had to use to do so. I'll go get a baby wipe and clean her hands up," he said as he pushed Sadie toward the living room.

* * *

After they finished dinner, it was time to give Sadie her bath. Jon was a little nervous because he'd never bathed a baby before. "Okay, so how do we do this?" Jon asked, sitting Sadie down on the edge of the sink and standing in front of her so she wouldn't fall. "First, strip her clothes off, but leave her diaper on until the bath water is regulated and ready for her to be placed in the tub, or she may pee on you," Mattie said, holding back a chuckle at the disgusted face Jon made. "I'll regulate the water this time, you just take Sadie's clothes off," Mattie told him.

Doing as he was told, Jon pulled down Sadie's little pants and pulled them off her body. Then he unbuttoned all the little buttons on the shirt she was wearing and pulled it over her body, leaving her diaper intact as Mattie had told him to. "Okay, I have her stripped to her diaper. Just let me know when I can take it off and place her in the tub."

"Alright, it's ready. You can take her diaper off now."

Undoing Sadie's diaper, Jon quickly but gently placed Sadie into the almost two feet of water Mattie had filed the tub with. "Now what," he asked. He felt so helpless. He had no idea how to do this. Mattie chuckled.

"Take the rag, wet it and ring it out over top of her head to wet her hair, but only use one hand to ring the rag over her head; use the other hand to block her eyes, so she doesn't get water in her eyes. She hates water in her eyes, she'll freak out if it blinds her."

Jon followed everything Mattie was telling him to do as he gave his daughter the first of many baths he would be giving her in her life. After she was completely bathed he backed away and admired his 'handy work'. "I think I did pretty well for my first time," he said watching Sadie slap her hands against the water, splashing before she grabbed a toy and shoved it into her mouth. "Yuck Sadie, the water's all dirty, don't do that," he said in a disgusted tone. Mattie laughed. She was pretty sure she'd laughed more often today than she had in any one day of Sadie's nearly-eighteen-months.

"Haven't you ever heard the saying 'God made dirt, and dirt don't hurt,'" she asked. Jon nodded.

"Yeah, I've heard it, but that doesn't mean I like watching her suck dirty water into her system." Mattie shook her head.

"Well, prepare yourself because she does a lot of gross things. But I'm pretty sure all the 'gross' things she will do will be pretty tame compared to the dirty things you've done in recent years," Mattie said, laughing a bit. Jon shook his head.

"I would never want her doing, or witnessing any of the dirty things I've ever done. And I do mean ever! Dating won't be allowed until she's an adult and I am no longer allowed to make her decisions for her." Mattie burst out laughing.

"Yeah umm, good luck with that feat." Jon shook his head.

"I'm serious. She's not dating in high school. I don't care how 'nice' the boy, or boys she brings home are. She can be friends with anyone she wants to, I won't make her a hermit, but she will not date any of them." Mattie decided it best not to touch that subject right now. They'd deal with it later in life when it actually mattered. Arguing over something that was still light years away was stupid.

* * *

Once Sadie was sick of splashing and playing wither bath toys and Jon had gone through his first drying, diapering and dressing lesson, they took Sadie into the living room and allowed her to play for a little while longer, allowing her to tire out a little more, before it was time for her to get to bed. "Alright, ready to help me put her to bed?" Mattie asked, picking Sadie up off the floor and glancing over at Jon. He shrugged.

"Yup, let's get her to bed," Jon said following Mattie into Sadie's room. Mattie turned toward him and handed Sadie over to him.

"I'll let you put her to bed. I'll just walk you through it," Mattie explained as Jon took Sadie from her. "Just place her in her crib and give her, her pacifier. She can stand up, once you give her the pacifier she should lay herself down on her own," Mattie told him. Jon kissed Sadie's forehead before gently placing his daughter into her Pack-N-Play; that was set up in the nursery until her actual crib arrived on the U-Haul. He inserted the pacifier into her wide open mouth. He watched as she did as Mattie said she would and lay down. He was amazed she knew what time it was and what to do."

"Night, sweet girl, see you in the morning," Mattie said, tugging on Jon's hand and leading him toward the door. "Pull the door over behind you. Don't completely shut it, leave it cracked," Mattie instructed. Once he was sure the door was set correctly, he followed Mattie back into the living room.

"I'm amazed she knew exactly what to do once I placed her in the crib," Jon said, plopping down on the sofa. Mattie laughed.

"It's been our bed time routine for awhile now. We're just allowing you to join in on it, that's all," Mattie said, chuckling softly. She was clearly messing around with him, Jon could tell.

"Oh, is that so?" Jon asked "Well, then maybe I'll have to make up my own little routine with her that we can let you join in on," he said sticking his tongue out at her.

"How mature, Jon," Mattie said, shaking her head.

"I've never been mature. I won't start now, either." Mattie laughed.

"Yeah, we wouldn't wanna cramp your style. That would be bad." Jon nodded.

"Exactly," he exclaimed, making her laugh. "See, you're catching on now," he said.

"In all seriousness, you did a great job today. I think you'll be just fine at this father thing." Jon smiled.

"Thanks. I have to admit though, I was nervous as hell once we woke up from our nap. It was easy while she was asleep, but once she was awake, it became a whole new ball game. She has a ton of energy." Mattie smiled and nodded her head.

"All kids do. You'll get use to it," she told him, kicking one of Sadie's toys over to the corner with the rest of the small group of toys she'd managed to shove in the diaper bag and bring with them on the plane.

Jon watched her straighten up Sadie's toys a bit. "Do you wanna watch a movie or something for a bit," Jon questioned. Mattie agreed and they chose a movie both could agree on and sat back on the sofa to watch it.

After the movie was over, Mattie stood up. "Alright, Sadie will be up by eight o'clock, so I'm gonna head to bed. Goodnight." Jon nodded.

"I'm right behind you. Goodnight," Jon said following Mattie down the hallway before they both separated into their own respected bedrooms.

Jon couldn't have asked for a better first day. It wasn't the easiest, but he managed to survive it, and he got to bond a little bit with his daughter. He definitely couldn't have requested a better day than that.


	13. Chapter Twelve

**Author's Note: Alright, I am back from my vacation. I want to thank those that commented, favorite, or followed this story while I was on the shot hiatus. They help a ton with making me want to continue this story. And as I expected, while I was a way, and had lack of internet on my laptop, I did a ton of writing for this story. I managed to type up to chapter eighteen. I plan to keep writing at least one 'future' chapter before I post the latest chapter. If I do that, I should be finished typing the story before I have it completely posted. As of now, I think I'm aiming for 25-30 chapters; not sure exactly what number yet, but that's the range at least. It's still a long ways off, though, so no worries. But I will say I have already contemplated doing a sequel to this story, depending on the success this story has by the time it ends. So there ya go, there's the updates for now. Now enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

**Chapter Note: The part that is italicized is a flashback to their earlier conversation that's mentioned in the first paragraph.**

* * *

**Chapter Twelve**

* * *

Jon's two weeks off from work were up; today was the day he had to head back out on the road and resume his spot as US Champion, along side his two stable mates. So he sat in the airport awaiting Colby and Joe's arrivals, as usual. He had hated saying goodbye to Sadie; and oddly enough, he didn't much like saying goodbye to Mattie, either. He wasn't sure what that was all about. They were just friends, but he couldn't deny that in the last week since she'd been living with him, they had grown closer; a lot closer. No, not "more than friends" closer, but close enough she may be considered a best friend by some. They'd talked about everything from how Mattie had grown up, and her own rough background, to Jon's rough background during his own childhood, to exactly why Mattie agreed to go along with Kaelyn's idea of keeping Sadie away from him, even after she had passed away. Jon still hated that he had missed nearly a year in a half of Sadie's life, but he now had a better understanding of why Mattie went along with Kaelyn's idea.

* * *

"_Okay, I think her room is done. We did a nice job. I loved your idea of putting her name on the wall above her crib," Mattie said, admiring the awesome work done in the now completed nursery. "Even after we finally switch her from the crib into a bed in a year or so, we can still leave it there. Unlike most toddler bed room wall boarders that kids grow tired of once they reach a certain age." Jon nodded in agreement._

"_Yeah, I'm just glad I got the chance to do this. You know, considering I almost didn't have the chance." Mattie frowned._

"_Please don't do this again, Jon. I already told you I don't understand Kaelyn's reasons for deciding what she did. I probably never will. I just had to go along with them." Jon shook his head._

"_No, after she was gone, you didn't __**have**__ to go along with anything she had said, but yet you did. I still don't understand that. All I want to know is _**why**_**you**__ agreed to keep my daughter from me, even after Kaelyn was gone. Why, Mattie? That's all I want to know is why."_

"_Fine you wanna know why I kept her away from you? It's because of my background growing up. Look, I told you I had a rough upbringing, and I was always taught to do what you're told, even if you dislike what you're told. To be more accurate, I wasn't "taught" that, I actually had it basically beaten into me." She paused as Jon gave her a confused look. "From the age of two, I was raised by my grandparents, and if my grandfather told me to do something, and I failed to do as I was told, he would literally whip me with his belt, or slap me across the face to make me do what he wanted me to. As a result, by the time Sadie came along, I was afraid to disobey Kaelyn's orders. I know it's stupid. I mean, especially after she was dead. What was she going to do? Haunt me? By now, I've survived worse." Mattie trailed off. _

_By the way she trailed off Jon could tell she didn't want to say anymore, but he wished she would. He wanted to fully understand her actions, but he didn't want to push her. Mattie had intended to stop talking after that, fearing she'd already spilled too much, but the look in Jon's eye told her he wanted her to continue. She was living with him now, so he was bound to find out about her past one way or another; whether it was now, or some time down the road, he would find out, so she might as well just get it all out now._

"_Look Jon, obviously, this isn't easy for me to talk about. But with you, nothing seems to be easy to talk about. Not that I don't like talking to you, that's not what I mean. It's just Kaelyn's death, now my rocky childhood. It's all very dark. But I can tell by the look in your eyes you want to further understand me, so I'm gonna attempt to explain my childhood, up until you and I met when you started dating Kaelyn. It's a long story, and as I already said, it's hard for me to talk about, so you're gonna have to bear with me," Mattie told him. Jon nodded. At this point, he didn't care if she was reading him a book as thick as the Guianese Book of World Records, if it was gonna help him understand her better he was gonna listen until she was completely finished talking. _

"_Alright, so when I was two-years-old, my mom left me with my grandparents for good. She had decided that she no longer wanted to be a mother. She was more into going out to party and drink and hang with friends than taking care of a cranky two-year-old every day. So from then until I turned seventeen, I lived with my grandparents. My grandmother loved me, and I loved her. My grandfather on the other hand was less than pleased I was living with them. He'd raised his children, and didn't think he should have to raise his grandchildren, too. I loved my grandfather up until I had to move in with them. See, he didn't mind me coming to visit every now and then, but living with them? That was out of the question."_

_Jon listened to Mattie's explain her dark past and all it did was make him want to go choke her grandfather. Good thing the guy was already dead because if he wasn't, Jon may have ended up behind bars for murder. He just couldn't imagine hurting Sadie the way Mattie was describing her childhood. What kind of sick individual got pleasure out of beating a child and watching them suffer? _

_Jon was brought back into reality by Mattie's words. She had reached the final chapter of her childhood; the part where she had finally endured enough physical pain and enough mental anguish to get out before her grandfather had a chance to finally kill her. "The last beating my grandfather laid on me landed me in the hospital with multiple broken bones, a cracked rib and a punctured lung. From the cracked rib leaning on my lung, I was in the hospital for almost a month because the cracked rib wasn't healing properly, and it kept re-puncturing my lung. The only way they could finally get the rib to heal properly, and make sure my lung had its own time to heal, was to leave me on a ventilator for three in a half weeks. Not being able to talk, or eat properly absolutely sucked" Mattie sniffled a couple times trying desperately to hold the tears at bay. Jon hated seeing her in so much pain reliving this, but he wanted to hear the whole story. Moving closer, he rubbed her back a little bit, trying to console her. Mattie recovered enough to continue._

"_By the time I was healed enough to leave the hospital, I couldn't wait to get out of there. When I was released, I couldn't stay with my grandparents anymore; I just couldn't take anymore beatings. Not to mention, the hospital could clearly tell that I hadn't done this much damage to myself. I was only fifteen at the time; which was obviously too young to be living on my own, but I refused to go withstand anymore beatings, and even if I could tolerate it, the hospital wouldn't allow it, so a social worker got called in. They were gonna put me into the system until I was eighteen. I wasn't having it, so I called Kaelyn, who explained to her parents what had happened, and how long it had been going on. They took me in, in a heartbeat. So I moved in with Kaelyn and her parents. Of course, about a year after that is when Kaelyn met you. So the rest of the story, you already know," Mattie said. _

_It felt like a weight had finally been lifted off her shoulders. She had finally revealed a majority of her past. At least, the part she knew she could tell him about, without having him go back into questioning her morals and reasoning for moving in with him in the first place. She couldn't tell him what she'd subjected Sadie to. There was no doubt if she told him that, he'd want to kill her._

_Jon was surprised by everything she'd just told him. He never expected that._

* * *

Jon was brought out of his memories when Colby lightly smacked him on the shoulder. "Hey bud, how was the time off?" Jon shook his head to clear it.

"Oh hey, it was good. I hate that I have to leave Sadie now, though." Colby just nodded.

"I bet, but if you hate it now, wait until later in the month when we head to Japan; or in a couple months, when we take the even longer trip to Australia and China." Jon nodded.

"Thanks for reminding me. Now I'm gonna dreading those two trips like the plague." Colby laughed.

"Ask Joe how to survive the long trips. He'd be better at that type of info than I am," Colby said, as he noticed Joe approaching the two.

"Did I hear my name? Why? Hey Jon, how was the time off," Joe asked as Jon laughed.

"Yes, you heard your name because I hate leaving Sadie behind. Colby subtle reminded me that this is a short trip compared to the trips coming so, so if I hate this trip, I'm really gonna hate the Japan and Australia trips." Joe nodded and shrugged.

"You'll get use to it. I won't lie, it's not gonna be easy, but it is doable." Jon nodded.

"Yeah, I'll just use facetime now more than I ever did before. It's definitely making me more electronically smart, if that's even a phrase." Joe and Colby both laughed.

"Well, if it wasn't before, it is now," Colby said. Jon nodded.

"US Airways Flight 520 will be boarding in five minutes," a female voice over the intercom informed them.

"Alright, well I guess this is it. Time to hit the road," Jon said grabbing his things and heading for the gate to board their plane. His Shield teammates weren't too far behind him.


	14. Chapter Thirteen

**Chapter Thirteen**

* * *

Jon had been back on the road with the WWE for less than three days, and Mattie had to admit, she actually kind of hated it. Even though Sadie was still there with her, the apartment sounded so quiet. How was that possible with an eighteen-month-old running around? Mattie wasn't sure, but somehow it just seemed a lot quieter without Jon around.

She'd only been living in the apartment with him a week, but she'd managed to spill her entire life story to him. Well, that is, except for her biggest reason for accepting his offer to leave Cincinnati and move to Florida to help him raise Sadie. When they'd talked, they got into why she had been willing, after very little debate, to move to Tampa. She had told Jon that when she accepted his offer she was running from abuse, and that leaving Cincinnati would definitely be in her best interest, as well as Sadie's. However, he assumed she meant her past; what she tolerated as a child. He assumed she meant she was running from the negative memories that would pop up every now and again at something she would see, or remember while living in Cincinnati.

However he was wrong. What Mattie never told him; actually, she never told anybody, was that she had managed to get into a relationship with a jackass who thought he could control her by beating the living hell out of her any time he wanted to. Especially after she had made the mistake of informing him what her childhood had consisted of. He had apparently decided that if she could tolerate it as a child, she could certainly tolerate it again as an adult. Jon would probably kill her if he found out she had subjected Sadie to that type of life style; even if she had only subjected to it for a really short amount of time. Chances are it would also send him back to questioning her motives in this whole situation again. She couldn't, and wouldn't, give him that opportunity. So, naturally, she had just gone about letting him assume she had meant the abuse from her childhood.

But that decision was beginning to cause guilt to seep into the back of her mind. She knew being dishonest with him was just putting her back to square route one in this whole situation. She promised she wouldn't lie to him anymore, but this wasn't a secret she was proud of, or liked to share. It honestly only made her look and feel stupid. How could one person allow herself to be in two different abusive relationships in her life, and not do something about it right from the start? Especially when it came to the second one she found herself in. It's not like she didn't know the signs of an abusive person. I mean, she'd lived with one for fifteen years prior to the abusive relationship.

She knew she had to tell him before he found out on his own. That would only make things worse. Her only problem was she didn't know when to tell him. Over the phone wasn't right, but she was afraid of looking at him as she told him. She'd have to figure it out before he returned from the current leg of the WWE tour because she couldn't keep it hidden anymore if she wanted him to start trusting her. No doubt he'd be mad about it; especially after he finds out what made her finally leave her ex. Hell, she was still pissed at herself for allowing it. But she couldn't turn back time; no. Instead she could only push forward and promise herself to never let something like that happen to her a third time. Ever!

* * *

"Mama, I hungy," Sadie said, slapping at her thigh with an open palm to finally break her out of her many thoughts.

"Alright, let's find you something to eat. What would you like? Cheerios," Mattie asked, getting an exited nod from Sadie. She laughed. "Come on, you little Cheerio feign." Mattie led Sadie into the kitchen and picked her up to strap her into her high chair. Filling Sadie's little Dora bowl with some dry cheerios, she placed it down in front of her on the trey of her high chair. Just as the little girl put a fist full of the cereal into her mouth Mattie's phone began ringing.

"DADA," Sadie shouted, the chewed up fist of cheerios she had shoved into her mouth the moment before, flying everywhere.

"Satyana Kaelyn, you don't talk with your mouth full. Now, look at the big mess you made! No more talking with your mouth full. You eat like a good girl," Mattie scolded as she grabbed her phone off the kitchen counter. Glancing at the caller ID before answering, Mattie was surprised to see that Sadie had indeed been correct in her assumption. She answered the phone quickly before it could stop ringing and kick to her voicemail. "Hey Jon, what's up," she questioned.

"Hey, nothing much is going on, on my end. I just wanted to call to check in with you guys. I haven't gotten to talk to you guys since I left the other day. How's Sadie?" Before Mattie had a chance to respond Jon could hear his daughter shouting in the background of the phone. He couldn't help the laugh that slipped from his mouth. "What is she shouting about?"

"She wants to talk to you, but she's eating cheerios. She's already christened the kitchen with chewed up cheerios; which by the way was disgusting. Somehow as soon as my phone rang, she knew it was you and without swallowing the fist full of cheerios she had shoved into her mouth, she shouted "dada," Mattie explained. Jon laughed. He couldn't help it. The mental image in his head of his daughter shouting for him and cheerios flying everywhere was too funny. It was indeed gross, but still pretty comical.

"I'm sorry. I don't mean to laugh. I know it was bad for her to do that with her mouth full, but I couldn't help it. The mental image that popped into my head as you were saying that was hilarious." Mattie smirked. She had to admit, if you hadn't seen the actual ordeal, the image in your head was probably pretty comical, so she couldn't really fault Jon. He'd wind up with his payback at some point. There was no doubt Sadie would do something to make a mess that he'd have to clean up in the future, and chances are one mess or another will be disgusting.

"It's fine. I already disciplined her. Besides your payback will come in due time." Jon wasn't sure what exactly she meant by that, but at the moment, he decided he didn't want to question it. He just really wanted to talk to Sadie. Although, if he's honest, talking to Sadie hadn't been his sole reason for calling, but it was a good cover up. Well, at least for now.

Mattie could hear his tone change in the next sentence. "Can I talk to her, please?" He asked. He sounded almost sad. How could Mattie deny him?

"Sure, hang on. Here Sadie, say hi to daddy," Mattie said handing the baby the phone.

"Dada," she screeched excitedly again, only without the cheerios this time. Mattie had been sure to pull the bowl off her highchair tray as she handed her the phone, to avoid her making an even bigger mess by the time she had finished talking to Jon.

"Hi, baby girl. Are you being good?"

"'es."

"Are you sure? I heard you were spitting cheerios all over the clean kitchen." Mattie couldn't hear what Jon had said, but she couldn't help but laugh quietly as she watched Sadie drop her head down in shame.

"Sowwy dada." Mattie had to admit she was amazed at how much Sadie's vocabulary had improved since being around Jon. It had only been a week, but she'd somehow learned and used ten or twenty new words that she didn't use before they had moved to Tampa with Jon. Mattie had to wonder if part of her reserved nature was due to the asshole. One thing was for sure, she'd never forgive herself for submitting Sadie to that chaos. And she was almost positive when Jon found out, he wouldn't forgive her, either. As soon as she had an inkling he was going to send her back to the part of her childhood she desperately tried to escape for six years, she should've taken Sadie and high tailed it. Instead, she stuck around, letting herself think she was just being pessimistic because of her past experience.

Once again, Sadie pulled Mattie from her thoughts; this time by shoving the phone back in her direction. "He' mama." Mattie shook the thought cobwebs out of her head and turned her attention back to the phone Sadie was holding out toward her.

"Thanks, baby girl." Mattie stuck the phone back to her ear. "You feel better now?"

Jon shrugged even though Mattie couldn't see him. "Yeah, a little bit. But I won't truly feel better until I'm actually back home. This travel shit and not getting to see her every morning may end up being the death of me. Especially in a couple months when I have to go to Japan, but that trip will be short compared to the two week trip to Australia and China the following month. And what will make that trip worse is the fact that when we get back from that, we have to stay out west because all the shows are out west until September, after SummeSlam is over. I was kind of looking forward to it before. But now? Yeah, not so much. I'm gonna miss y… her so much," Jon said, catching himself before he could say 'you guys'. Yes, they'd grown closer, but he wasn't sure they were at that level yet.

Mattie didn't appear to pick up on his close slip-up, and if she had, she chose to ignore it because she just continued on with the topic at hand. "Don't say that, you'll be fine. Hey, look at it this way, now you've got the best of both worlds: you have your daughter, and you're getting to live out your dream. You only had one of those options before."

Jon knew she had a point, but it still didn't ease his mind much. Especially with the fairly long upcoming trips he had in his near future. "Yeah, I guess. Who knows, maybe I can bring you guys out to the west coast for SummerSlam, so I get to see her at least once in person in that time frame, instead of just over facetime. I don't know we'll have to work something out. But at the moment, I have to go. I will try to call you again tonight before Sadie has to go to bed, but if I can't, I will talk to you guys tomorrow. Have a good day."

"Alright, sounds good. Try to enjoy your day. We are fine, I promise. Goodbye. Sadie, yell bye to daddy," Mattie said.

"Bye dada," Sadie yelled just before Mattie hung up her phone, effectively ending their conversation.

Jon smiled a little hearing his daughter's voice just as the line disconnected. But it quickly faded because of the nagging voice in the back of his mind that kept telling him Mattie was hiding something. He could hear it in the tone of her voice every time they talked. And it seemed like it got worse with each conversation. There was something she wasn't being completely truthful about; something she wasn't telling him, but he couldn't put a finger on what it was. But it was definitely clear she had something on her mind that is bothering her. He would definitely find out. No doubt about it, there was a reason she sounded worse and worse with each conversation. And he was confident that eventually he'd get her to crack.

However, right now, he couldn't worry about what she was hiding. He had a show to prepare for. He only hoped whatever it was she was hiding, he would eventually get her to tell him, and it wouldn't prevent them from continuing to work on their friendship, or set them back from where they had managed to get to in such a short amount of time. He liked that it didn't take them long to become close friends and he'd really hate to lose that now because of whatever it is Mattie is clearly hiding. Especially if it was something that affected Sadie, like Jon suspected it did. That would totally suck for him and Sadie.


	15. Chapter Fourteen

**Chapter Fourteen**

* * *

The Shield had just completed a six-man tag match against The Usos and Justin Gabriel. They of course came out victorious like they did in ninety-eight percent of six-man tag action that involved them. The match was taped for Smackdown and would be aired the following Friday. This marked the end of their week of shows. They were free to go home and relax for a couple of days before they had to hit the road again for the weekend house shows that took place Friday-Sunday before they had to head to the next city for RAW.

Jon was glad the week was now over. He'd never endured a more hellacious couple of days. He couldn't get more than a few words out of Mattie over the phone, and he was missing Sadie more than he ever imagined would be possible. He couldn't wait to get back to Tampa. He wanted to hold Sadie until she begged him to be put down, and he was hell bent on finding out what was going on with Mattie. If it was the last thing he did before he left on Friday morning, he would definitely be finding out what it was she was hiding from him. He couldn't stand how reserved and quiet she was suddenly being.

"Ready to head out, boys?" Joe asked. The keys to the rental car they had possession of tucked into his hand because it was his turn to drive. Jon nodded his head vigorously.

"I'm more than ready. I wanna get home and see Sadie, and attempt to pry whatever secret Mattie is hiding from me out of her. She's driving me insane with her lack of conversation. Before I left, she was completely open and ready to tell me anything she could think of; now it's like I'm a complete stranger, and she doesn't wanna talk to me anymore. It's frustrating." Colby frowned.

"Hang in there, dude. She'll come around. For now, let's get to the airport so we can get the hell home. I wanna see Leighla before she has to leave for work in the morning."

All three Shield members grabbed their own luggage, and headed out to their rental car. After throwing it all in the trunk, Joe jumped into the driver seat, Colby jumped in the passenger side seat and Jon threw himself in the backseat. It was gonna be a long torturous night of travel that Jon was not looking forward to.

* * *

Mattie knew Jon had picked up on her shady attitude and could tell she was distancing herself. She could hear it in every conversation when he would ask if she was okay, and start questioning her about what was wrong. She'd always lie and say she was fine, and nothing was wrong. She knew he'd start hounding her the minute he got home if she was awake. She was petrified that once she revealed the secret to him, she'd lose everything; their friendship, a place to live, and most importantly, being able to see Sadie. She was kicking herself for not telling him right from the beginning.

She was dreading the look in his eyes when she finally told him the secret. She knew it would match the look she saw many times on Dean Ambrose when he was stalking an opponent during WWE programming. That thought alone scared the hell out of her. She had no problems admitting she was afraid of his on-screen character because it was, after all, only a character, but Jon played him so well that sometimes she thought he failed to realize some of Dean's mannerisms easily sneaking into _his own_ mannerisms. She was afraid when she told him, he would snap; like she'd seen Ambrose do to opponents on many occasions.

Did Jon really have the ability to disengage from himself like that? Was it possible for him not to realize he'd slipped into character and snap about something like this? Mattie wasn't sure, but the looks and voice she recognized as that of Ambrose's were enough to scare the living hell out of her, and make her think twice about revealing any of this to him.

But on the other hand, she knew she had a better chance if he found out from her, instead of someone else. If someone else told him, he'd be even worse about the whole situation because he'd be pissed she wasn't honest with him; if she tells him, he may be pissed she wasn't honest from the beginning, but at least _she_ **was** honest.

It had been about four hours since the Smackdown taping had ended, and about three in a half since the dark match that took place after Smackdown was finally finished. She knew because he'd texted her to tell her he was leaving the arena and would be home shortly. Looking at the clock she knew that text had come through two-in-a-half hours ago. With Smackdown located in South Carolina this week, it didn't take more than an hour or two by plane to get back to Tampa. That meant he'd be walking through the door any minute.

Mattie had been lying in bed for an hour. She hoped she'd be asleep by the time he got home, so she could avoid the issue until tomorrow, but her brain had other plans. She was wide awake. No matter how hard she tired she couldn't make the wheels in her brain stop turning so she could fall asleep.

And now, the heavy footfalls, which are to be expected when your roommate is over two hundred pounds, she could hear in the hallway told her, her time was up. He was home. She swallowed hard as she heard him push open Sadie's door, presumably just to check on her; perhaps give her a kiss goodnight. Hearing the door be pulled back over when he was finished, Mattie squeezed her eyes shut, hoping he wouldn't nudge her door open to see if she was awake.

No such luck.

Her door squeaked open causing Mattie's breath to momentarily catch in her throat as she heard his hefty footsteps draw closer to her bed. She was hoping with her eyes closed, he'd think she was asleep and walk back out without bothering her.

Luck was just not on her side tonight, at all.

"Mattie, I know you're not asleep. If you were, you wouldn't be squeezing your eyes shut. So means you're awake, why don't you sit up so we can talk?" Jon said, leaning back against the wall that was located beside her bed, arms folded over his muscular, broad chest.

"What if I don't wanna talk?" She asked.

"That's too bad because we're talking tonight. You've been pulling away from me since I left last Friday, and I want to know why? What changed from the time I left until now that you have suddenly become super reserved and don't wanna say more than two or three words to me? Remember that honesty thing we agreed on, Mattie? Well, this isn't following that. So I suggest you start talking." Mattie mentally sighed. He was right. This wasn't following that little agreement. There was no escaping this. Her secret was coming out tonight, whether she wanted it to, or not.

"You're not going to be happy when you hear what I have to say," Mattie mumbled.

"I've actually already figured that out. If I was going to be happy about it, you wouldn't be hiding it. So the sooner it's out, the less mad I'll be, but the longer you keep it from me, the more pissed I'll be once I find out. And let's face it, Mads, I will find out. Whether you tell me, or someone else does, it will get back to me eventually, so you might as well start talking now."

"It's a long story, you may wanna sit while I explain it," Mattie suggested, pointing to the bottom of her bed. Jon sat down below her feet, and waited for her to start talking.

Mattie never made eye contact with him; she just glanced down at her blanket and started picking at an invisible string as she began talking. "About six months after Sadie was born, I met a guy. His name was Tyler. He seemed really sweet, and had nothing but the best intentions. Or so I thought. One night, I went to his apartment, with Sadie, for an unexpected visit. When I knocked on the door, he opened it and I could tell immediately he was drunk off his ass. Being a responsible parent, I figured it was a bad idea to be there with her while he was like that, so I told him to sober up and that I'd call him later before I turned to leave. But before I could even take a step, he'd grabbed my arm and yanked both of us into the apartment." Mattie paused, glancing up at Jon. Even in the dim light of the dark room she could see he had his jaw clenched, much like Ambrose's when he gets pissed. The mannerisms were clearly already beginning to mix together, and she was almost positive he didn't even realize it.

"I told him I had to leave because I had to get Sadie home and fed before bed, but he refused. He took her out of my arms and placed her on the floor before turning his attention back to me. He pinned me to the wall with my arms above my head and kissed me roughly on the mouth. I was trying not to panic, but I knew I was failing. But I was still rational enough to do the only thing I could think to do at the time. I kicked him in the groin, quickly picked up Sadie and ran out the door."

Again, Mattie paused. This time, Jon spoke up. "And you never went back, right? Tell me I'm right because if you tell me this, or anything of the nature, happened again in the presence of my daughter, I am going to be beyond angry."

That wasn't Jon talking, it was Ambrose; or it sounded like him anyway. Mattie was getting more and more nervous now. "I wish I could tell you that, but I'd be lying, and that doesn't fit our agreement. It happened three other times before I finally got out of the relationship for good, but only one of the three was in her presence."

"Which of the three, Mattie? And if you tell me that prick ever laid his hands on my daughter, I'm gonna go find him and kill him myself." Jon said, once again, the Ambrose voice. Mattie didn't respond right away which seemed to piss Jon off even more. "Tell me now Madelyn," he demanded, shifting his weight toward her on the bed.

Mattie jumped a little at his demand, his voice in full-out Ambrose mode. "The last time, and unfortunately, I can't tell you he never touched her. It's why I left and never looked back. When he was hurting me, I just let it go. I thought he'd stop. Maybe it was my past, or maybe I'm just that naïve, I have no idea. All I know is I stupidly stayed, until the day he hit Sadie. That was the straw that broke the camel's back, I guess."

"He's why you agreed to move here, isn't he? Otherwise, you'd have turned me down on that, wouldn't you have?" The puzzle had suddenly fit and fallen together in Jon's mind. He was definitely beyond pissed, and his voice hadn't softened at all. It scared Mattie because she wasn't sure what he was capable of at this point.

"Yes and no. I wanted to come here for all the reasons I told you the night I agreed to move, so I was coming either way, but he was the strongest reason. He came back a couple of days before I made my final decision. He rang my phone numerous times and showed up at my apartment looking for me. I wasn't there, one of my neighbors saw him and, knowing about the background to our relationship, she wanted to warn me." She waited to see if Jon had anything else to say. But he said nothing. The room was now eerily silent, aside from each of their breathing. Mattie took the silence to mean she could continue, and now would be a great time to try to beg him for some type of forgiveness.

"Look Jon, I know you're pissed at me for not telling you all of this from the start, but you have to understand, I was scared. I had to get away from him, and I was afraid if I told you, you wouldn't want me living with you, and then I'd be stuck all alone dealing with him. After I got here, and we got closer I knew keeping it from you was stupid. I've been kicking myself since you left on Friday. I don't know what else to do. I've done all I can. If you want me out, I'll leave after you line up another 'live in' option for Sadie."

Jon didn't say anything for the longest time. Mattie didn't know what he was thinking, but she could tell the wheels in his head were definitely turning. Finally, he spoke up, his voice finally softening a bit and losing the Ambrose tone just a tad. "No, I don't want you to leave. You're all Sadie has known for eighteen-months. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not happy about any of this, I'm beyond pissed and I wanna ring the guys neck for touching a women, but more importantly, for laying his grubby, vile fingers on my daughter. I can also tell you it makes me question my trust in you; however, on the other hand, the fact you told me at all shows you're getting a hang of the trust and honesty agreement we have, and I'm willing to work with that. Given our backgrounds, this whole trust and honesty thing is new for both of us, so we're just gonna have to work at it." Mattie nodded.

A few more silent moments rolled by as Jon glanced at the alarm clock Mattie had on her nightstand. The big red bubbled numbers told him it was one-thirty in the morning. "It's late, and I'm sure Sadie will have us up bright and early, but I want to get this whole conversation out of the way while we're on the topic. I think we both need to lay everything from our past to now out on the table tonight. From here out, we have no secrets. What do you say?" Mattie gave him a slight smile and a nod of her head to show her agreement.

"Alright, I'll go first. You know I had a rough childhood. My dad wasn't in the picture and mom was a drug addicted alcoholic who stood out on the corner to earn a few bucks to get her fix. Well, what I don't think you know is that as I got older and got into wrestling, I went over to Porto Rico to try to further my wrestling career. This was probably about a year before I met Kaelyn. Anyway, while I was over there, I fell into the drug trap. There was nothing to do over there except wrestle, and drugs were really easy to come by, so I'd go out and do drugs when I got bored, just for the fun of it. So before you ask, yes, I was a drug addict. It didn't last long. As soon as I got back to the states and someone pointed out what was going on because, due to the drugs, I'd lost a ton of weight, I took off a year from wrestling and cleaned myself up. That's when I met Kaelyn, right after I got out of rehab. I have to admit, I think she helped keep my clean after that. Without her, I likely would've found a reason to fall back into the habit. Okay, now it's your turn. If you have any other secrets, spill them now"

There were a few moments of silence. Mattie was shocked. She knew his mom was an addict and an alcoholic, who would sell her body to make money for her drug fix, and she knew his dad was non-existent growing up, but she never knew Jon had any type of drug issue. Ever! "Wow, did Kaelyn know all that?" Jon nodded his head.

"Yeah, I told her after we started getting serious. It's obviously not my proudest moment, so I try not to talk about it often. Now, seriously it's your turn. Are there any other secrets you may have?" Mattie thought about it for awhile.

"Nope, you know I was abused as a child, you know how I got out of that ordeal, and now you know about my abusive relationship and how I managed to escape that. No other secrets."

Jon stood up off the bed. "Alright, then I guess we can get some sleep now. But I mean it, from here out, we tell each other everything! I don't care if you think it's stupid, I wanna know about it. It's the only way we're gonna get this living arrangement to work out in the best interest of all three of us." Mattie nodded.

"I agree. Goodnight, Jon."

"Goodnight, Mattie," he replied as he walked out and pulled her door over.

* * *

Mattie knew that conversation could have gone a lot worse, but she was glad they managed to get it out of the way in a somewhat civilized manner. Now that the dreaded conversation was out of the way, her brain was willing to shut down, and she found herself drifting into dreamland easily.

* * *

Jon lay in bed, trying to get comfortable, as he thought about how glad he was that he got her to finally spill what had been bothering her. He could tell as soon as their conversation was finished and he had opened up about a part of his past that she was back to her normal self. He also knew he needed to learn how to control his voice a bit. She may not know it, but he could tell when he was slipping into "Ambrose mode". Sometimes, he did it on purposely, to scare someone. Tonight, it was more of an uncontrolled thing. He knew he was doing it, but he was so pissed off, he didn't care. On one hand, he hated that she had kept that whole ordeal, and the fact his daughter was involved in it, from him; but on the other hand, he was just glad they both made it out safely, and she had finally figured out the Tyler creep was just that, a creep.

Now they just had to work on making this whole living arrangement work, not only for Sadie, but for themselves as well. If they told each other everything, and talked out their differences instead of arguing over them, there was no reason why this shouldn't work. Of course, saying it and then actually doing it are always two completely different animals. He knew they had a ton of work ahead of them if they were gonna make this situation work.


	16. Chapter Fifteen

**Author's Note: As stated in the first chapter disclaimer of this story, I neither know, nor own anybody in this story. Any and all real life 'facts' used within the story are from interviews and other things found around the net. The divorce talked about in this chapter is in fact REAL, and any Dean Ambrose/Jon Moxley fan knows exactly who Sami and Chrissy are, and knows they really real life friends with Dean, but I have no idea about the details surrounding the divorce, other than what Chrissy revealed in an interview, nor do I know how Jon actually reacted to it. I just used this specific reaction because it fit with the storyline of this story better. I just wanted to put that out there so nobody was confused. Now, enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

**Chapter Fifteen**

* * *

It had been three in a half weeks since Jon and Mattie had the long talk the night he came home from one of his road trips and forced her to talk to him. They had been open and honest with each other ever since. Mattie had even told Jon that Tyler had attempted to contact her again since she'd relocated, but she had finally gotten sick of ignoring his phone calls and simply had her cell phone service carrier block his number, so it would be impossible for him to call her number anymore. Jon was glad she did that on her own and it took no persuading from him in order for her to do it. He didn't want her talking to Tyler ever again. If he was honest, he knew it wasn't only because the guy was a scumbag, that was a huge part of it, but the other part was a fact he wasn't quite ready to admit that to himself yet, let alone anyone else. So he just told himself his feelings were due to Mattie being one of his best friends and he didn't want her or his daughter subjected to someone like Tyler ever again.

* * *

One of the long overseas trips Jon had been dreading since he found out about Sadie had finally popped up on the WWE schedule. They had to fly over to Japan to perform in three different house shows. It was a part of the WWE World Wide LIVE RAW Tour. As a result, he currently found himself sitting in a hotel room he was sharing with Colby and Joe. This trip was short, only four days long, compared to the one that was still up coming. In less than a month they would be taking LIVE RAW Tour back overseas to Australia and China. The trip itself was set to be over a week long, but what made it worse was once they'd returned back home from that trip, they'd be staying on the west coast until early September because SummerSlam was set to take place in Los Angeles, and due to the fact WWE didn't do west coast trips that often, the booking crew had decided an entire month out there was a good idea.

Of course, that meant if Jon couldn't find a way to get Mattie to agree on a trip to Los Angeles for SummerSlam, it would be an entire month before he'd see Sadie again. Four days was starting to kill him, he didn't see any way he'd be able to somehow survive a month without seeing his daughter.

He now found himself with a new mission: getting Mattie to agree to a trip to Los Angeles. He may have to guilt her into it, but at this point, he was willing to do anything that would work just so he wouldn't miss another month of his daughter's life. That probably sounded pretty mean, maybe even selfish, but Jon didn't care. He refused to miss another month of her life if he had any say in it. So if Mattie feeling guilty is the only way to get her to agree to a trip to LA, Jon was willing to play a little hardball just to get what he wanted. He'd learned how to do this type of thing to survive growing up, and he knew the tools were still implanted in his brain somewhere. He just had to pull them back out and dust them off a little bit.

"Hey Jon, are you alright over there?" Claudio Castagnoli, better known by his ring name, Antonio Cesaro; asked Jon when he saw the far-off look Jon had in his eyes. Claudio was hanging out in their room with them to keep from being bored. At the sound of Claudio's voice, Jon shook the ideas of making Mattie feel guilty out of his head for the time being and turned his attention to his colleague.

"Yeah, fine. I just got lost in thought, that's all." Claudio laughed.

"Thinking about a girl," he asked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. Jon shook his head.

"Not exactly, no." Before he could even think about what to say next to explain his spaced out moment, Colby spoke up.

"He's probably thinking about Mattie and Sadie." Jon glared at him as Claudio gave them both a confused look. Jon wasn't sure he was ready to tell the whole locker room about Sadie or Mattie yet. It's not that he was ashamed of either of them, he loved his daughter, and he definitely couldn't have asked for a better adopted mother, or friend in Mattie, but he wasn't ready to explain how he'd missed out on seventeen-months of Sadie's life because of something his bitch of an ex had thought was best for him. It still made him bitter and angry to talk about it, and every time he thought about it, he seemed to hate Kaelyn more.

"Oh, so you're thinking of _two_ girls. I see how you roll. Smooth, buddy," Claudio said, giving him a knowing nod and wink. Jon and Colby both shook their heads.

"No, you have it all wrong. Mattie is one of my best friends, and the adopted mother of my nineteen-in-a-half-month-old daughter, Satyana; we call her Sadie for short. Not to mention, it's also easier to remember and say, than Satyana is," Jon said, trying to fix Claudio's misunderstanding.

"Wait, daughter? You have a daughter? When did that happen? And what do you mean adopted mother," Claudio threw question after question at Jon in quit rapid-fire succession.

"Yes, I have a daughter. I've had a daughter for nineteen-in-a-half months, but I never knew it until two-in-a-half months ago, when she was seventeen-months-old. As for the adopted mother, she's my ex-girlfriend Kaelyn's high school best friend. She adopted Sadie when Kaelyn died due to childbirth complications. When I found out about Sadie, I moved them both in with me, and we've been raising Sadie together ever since," Jon explained the easiest and shortest possible way he could.

"Wow, that's sad about your ex, but hey I'm sure the best friend is hot. You've probably hit that already, haven't you? If not, you want to. That's why you were lost in thought, right," Claudio asked. His tone clearly said he was only joking around, but Jon didn't find it one bit amusing.

"No, actually, I haven't because contrary to popular belief amongst the locker room and a majority of the WWE Universe, I do actually know how to control my sexual appetite. I respect Mattie way more than to just sleep with her and then throw her away like a piece of trash. We both have higher morals than that. She's my best friend, and I won't do a "friends with benefits" thing with someone I truly care about." Jon was pissed, and he wasn't holding anything back as he lashed out at Claudio. He's not sure why that joke pissed him off so much, but it had. He never intended to snap on Claudio like he had, but he didn't find that sexually innuendo joke in reference to Mattie on bit funny, and he'd be damned if he was gonna sit idly by and allow someone to degrade Mattie like Claudio just had; even if he had only been cracking a harmless joke that was never actually intended to degrade anyone.

"Sorry, dude. I was only joking around I wasn't trying to degrade anyone. I won't bring that subject up anymore where this Mattie girl is concerned," Claudio said, holding his hands up in defense.

"Good idea," Jon said before he stood up and left the room to escape his friend's awkward stares. Colby and Joe sat staring after him in a bit of shock at his outburst toward Claudio. None of them had ever heard him defend any girl like he had just done for Mattie before, and they'd all known him for at least two years now.

"He's falling for her. He may not realize it yet, or maybe he just doesn't wanna admit it, but he's got it bad. No guy defends a girl like that to their friends unless there's a reason. I know they haven't been together in more than a friend's capacity just by his moodiness; if he'd gotten laid lately, he wouldn't be so damn moody, so they've definitely never slept together. And he hasn't slept with anyone else because he wants her, but he has no idea how to broach the subject given their living arrangement and Sadie. But I know what a guy who has it bad looks like, and if you look at Jon right now, he's a damn replica image of them," Joe said, speaking for the first time since Jon had started talking to Claudio. Colby and Claudio both nodded their heads.

"Yeah, there's definitely something there. I've never heard him freak like that in regards to a girl before. Not even Chrissy; another of his friends from his CZW days, and he's super close with her; has been for years. I mean, hell, do you remember when she and Sami were going through their divorce? He knew Sami longer than Chrissy, as a matter of fact they grew up in Ohio together. They were best friends before Sami even started dating Chrissy, or married her, but that didn't stop Jon from wanting to kill Sami after he found out he hurt Chrissy when the divorce information surfaced. However, that was a totally different kind of protection. That was like a big brother sticking up for his little sister. This shit with Mattie is more than that; there's something else behind his defensiveness. You can hear it in his tone of voice; you can see it when she calls to let him talk to Sadie before putting her to bed every night. He's pretending he's 'excited' to talk to Sadie, but that's not it. At least, it's not the whole reason," Colby said before trailing off. All three guys sat there in silence before Colby spoke up again. "Buckle up, guys, because I have a feeling it's gonna be a long ride. This will last until he's willing to admit his feelings to himself; which, with Jon, won't be any time soon. Well, at least, not without some type of a push from outsider parties like us." Joe and Claudio both nodded their heads, agreeing with him.

They all knew due to Jon's background he had a hell of a time with his feelings, and this type of feeling was totally going to throw him for a loop. Without help it would definitely be awhile before he was able to wrap his brain around the feeling and admit he was falling for one of his best friends. Colby pulled his phone out of his pocket and began texting Chrissy. He and Leighla had become friends with her since Jon had introduced them awhile back. He was hoping maybe she would know how to help their pig headed friend come to his senses and realize what was happening, and take advantage of it, before it was too late.


	17. Chapter Sixteen

**Chapter Sixteen**

* * *

Jon had walked out onto the balcony of the hotel and sat down in a chair. He looked out at the city, admiring the sky scrapers and other scenery around the hotel. It was beautiful, he could admit that, but this wasn't where he wanted to be. He took a deep breath and released it, pulling his phone from his pocket. The time staring back at him told him it was eight pm Japan time, which meant it was eight am Tampa time because Japan was twelve hours ahead of the Eastern Time Zone in the United States. Seemed like the perfect time to give Mattie and Sadie a call on facetime.

Mattie had just gotten the breakfast dishes cleaned up and got Sadie into her outfit for the day when her cell phone went off, signaling a facetime message was coming through. She was hesitant to answer it because she had to get out the door to work, but when she saw it was Jon she couldn't ignore it. "Sadie, daddy's on the phone," Mattie called to the toddler as she hit the 'accept' button on her phone. "Hey Jon, I really hate to rush this, but I was just getting ready to walk out the door for work."

Jon frowned a bit. He knew the call wouldn't last long, but he had to see and talk to both of them. "I know, I'm sorry, but I had to talk to you and Sadie. This trip sucks. I wanna be home with you guys so bad. I've never felt this way on the road before. I'm seriously contemplating asking about dropping the belt and taking a sabbatical leave." Mattie's eyes went wide.

"No Jon, do not do that! That is exactly the type of thing Kaelyn had been worried about, and one of the reasons why she didn't tell you about Sadie. I told you we would make this work, and we are going to make this work without you getting time off. Do not request anymore time off, got it?"

Jon knew now was the perfect time to put his SummerSlam plan into motion. He ignored her last question and through his plan into motion. "Mattie, do you realize that after this trip is over, we have three weeks of shows in the United States before we have to head back overseas again; and that trip is scheduled to be even longer than this trip is. We have to go to Australia and China at the end of this month, and it runs into early August. Then even after we get back, all the shows are on the west coast because SummerSlam is in Los Angeles. That means I'll have to go a full month without seeing Sadie, or you, in person. I can't do that; this three day trip is killing me. There's no way I'll be able to survive a month!" Mattie frowned.

"We'll figure something out. You won't go a month without seeing her, I promise. Now you have to promise me something, promise me you won't request anymore time off right now."

Jon noticed she didn't touch the 'or you' part of his previous statement, but he decided to let it go. They didn't have much time at the moment, and he still wanted to see Sadie and say good morning to her before Mattie had to go to work. "I think I have a solution to it, but we can talk about it when I get home. For now, I promise I won't request any time off. Now, can I talk to Sadie real fast before you have to leave for work, please?" Mattie smiled.

"Thank you. And yes, you can say hi to her before we leave," Mattie said, finally handing her phone to the little girl, who had been standing next to her waiting for the phone.

"Dada," she squealed. Her excitement every time she saw him on facetime when he was away always managed to bring a huge smile to his face. Nobody in his entire life had ever been able to bring a smile to his face like she could. She always had the ability to cheer him up, no matter how down or depressed he was.

"Hi pretty girl. Are you getting ready to go to work with mommy?"

"Yup," she responded, popping the p at the end. Jon laughed.

"Well, be good. I don't wanna hear you were bad, or you're in trouble when daddy gets home. Got it?"

"'ot it," she said, forgetting the g because she couldn't pronounce it.

"Good. I know mommy has to get to work, so give her back the phone. I love you and I'll see you in a few days, okay?"

"Otay, 'uv 'ou dada," she said handing the phone back to Mattie.

"Now, go get some sleep, so you can get your next show over with, and come back home quicker," Mattie said. Jon nodded.

"I'll do my best. I'll talk to you later, have a good day at work," Jon said before they both simultaneously disconnected the call.

* * *

Jon continued to sit out on the balcony for a little longer, staring out at the scenery surrounding him. He was glad he had managed to talk to them before Mattie had to head for work. The time difference and remembering when it was best to call was a pain in the ass, but talking to them had managed to help brighten his day just a little bit.

Sighing, Jon stood up and wiped his sweaty hands against his jeans before reentering the hotel room he shared with his two friends. Since he had gone outside, Claudio had left, and just Colby and Joe remained in the room. They had seen him walk back in, but he didn't say a word to either of them. He feared it would set off a lecture from one or both of them, and he wasn't in the mood. He managed to walk over to the bed that he had dubbed as "his" when they'd arrived, and laid down on it. Neither of them said anything to him. He figured they weren't in a confrontation mood either.

He laid there thinking about everything that had gone on since he found out about Sadie. Just thinking about it made him realize how asinine it all sounded. Who found out about the daughter they didn't know they had for seventeen-months, and then slowly fell for her adopted mother within a month and a half? It made sense when this type of thing happened with a father and the biological mother of the child because they had obviously been attracted to each other before, but a biological father falling for an adopted mother? No. This was totally insane! He couldn't allow himself to reveal any of this to Mattie because she would surely laugh in his face and think he had totally lost whatever was left of his brain.

Jon wasn't sure how long he'd been lying there, or how long he'd been lost in his own thoughts, but he was jarred back to reality when he heard his text message alert sound as he felt the device vibrate against his thigh, notifying him he had a new text message from someone. He adjusted his hips on the bed until he was able to reach into his pocket and pull the small gadget from the confines. Glancing at the screen, he smirked when he saw Chrissy's name, figuring she was sending him something goofy like she usually did. Opening the message, his smirk quickly turned from a smirk to a frown as he fixated a death glare on his two-toned best friend.

* * *

**Author's Note: Uh-oh! What did Colby say to Chrissy about Jon that has him ready to kill Colby? Dun, dun, dun! Sorry, had to throw in a cliffhanger at some point. And I can't tell you this isn't the only one in the story. There will be a much juicer one later one in the story. ;)**


	18. Chapter Seventeen

**Author's Note: First off, I wanna say thank you to all of you reading, reviewing, following and favoriting. I love that people are loving this story. And second of all, if you guys hated THAT cliffhanger, you're really gonna hate me come chapter 24. So there's your heads up. There are at least two more cliffhangers I can remember off the top of my head as of now, but I may throw a couple more in before the story is finished. Haha. Hey, at least I forewarned you. ;) Anyway, let's find out what Colby did that involved Chrissy and pissed Jon off, shall we? Enjoy. :)**

* * *

**Chapter Seventeen**

* * *

"What the fuck is your problem?" Jon shouted at an obviously confused Colby.

"Well, I think I should be asking you that question, considering your screaming at me for seemingly no reason," Colby responded, confusion clearly lacing his voice.

"Why the fuck did you text Chrissy and tell her I was falling for Mattie, you jackass? I'm not falling for Mattie! We are best friends. That's it! Best friends; nothing more. Just because I didn't appreciate how Claudio degraded her with his joke doesn't mean I am, or already have fallen for her," Jon angrily ranted. His angry denial only further confirmed to his teammates what both already knew; Jon didn't know how to deal with the emotions or feelings he was feeling, so he was vehemently denying them instead.

Colby smirked a bit. "When was the last time you had a one-night-stand, Jon," he asked, deciding it was best to attempt to help his friend by attacking his defenses right from the get-go. And that meant calling him out on the one thing that would help open his eyes.

"Why the fuck does that even matter? We're not talking about who I have slept with; we're talking about who I _haven't_ slept with."

"You'll see why it matters if you just answer the damn question. So again, when was the last time you went out to a bar or party, found a girl you were undeniably attracted to, and brought her back to your house or hotel room for one night of fun, with no strings attached," Colby asked again, this time using different wording. Jon stood there contemplating his friend's question for quite awhile. The truth was, Jon wasn't even sure when his last one-night-stand had been. He knew it was before he found out about Sadie because he wouldn't bring a girl back to his house with Sadie there. He had been to a couple bars since Sadie had come into his life, but he hadn't gotten drunk while he was there. However, as far as a one-night-stand went, he honestly didn't have any idea when exactly his last one was.

"Before I found out about Sadie. I don't know exactly when," he finally responded, giving Colby the exact answer he was seemingly looking for.

"Exactly Jon, before Sadie came into your life. That was two-in-a-half months ago. Do you know why that is, Jon?" Jon shrugged his shoulders.

"Yeah, because I have a daughter now, my morals have changed for the better thanks to her. I've been thinking about how I'd want her treated when she is older, and how I was treating women wasn't the correct answer, so I changed. And I'm not bringing strange women around her, either, so taking them to my house is out of the question; even if she is already asleep at that point," Jon told him, folding his arms defensively across his chest. Colby shook his head.

"You, I and Joe all know that's not the whole reason, Jon. Look, I'll give it to you; you've been an amazing father since you found out about Sadie. You love her like a father is supposed to love their child. We can all see that just as clearly as we can see the sky is blue. However, we're also all aware of your reactions every time Mattie calls, or texts you. Your fucking face lights up like a god damn Christmas tree. You remind us of a kid on Christmas morning, all excited to get to the tree and rip the presents open. You can't hide your excitement when you see her name," Colby paused, giving Jon a chance to deny it like he thought he would. But to his surprise, Jon didn't fight back like usual. He just remained silent, so Colby took it as a sign he could continue.

"We know you have feelings for her that stretch beyond that of friendship. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see right through the rough exterior you're trying to put in place. The feelings you're trying to fight are not bad feelings for a single straight red blooded male living with a single female to have. Wait, let me put it to you this way, if you were living with Mattie and you weren't attracted to her, then I think I'd have to start questioning your sexuality because she's absolutely beautiful. Any straight red blooded male who lived with a girl like Mattie, in a platonic way and had no feeling toward her, isn't actually a straight male."

Colby paused for a second time to see if Jon wanted to try to deny it and fight back, but again Jon continued to remain silent. "Look, all I'm trying to do here is help you. I want you to realize all of this and admit it to yourself, so you can tell her before it's too late. If you keep denying it and ignoring how you feel, she's eventually going to find someone else. You guys won't be living together forever. Yes, it works for now, but if, or when, she finds someone and falls in love, she's gonna end up moving in with him. Maybe even start a family of her own. This situation you have right now is great and all, but if you don't open your eyes and admit how you're feeling, to her, you will eventually lose her; possibly for good. We all know you don't want that," Colby said glancing in Joe's direction, getting a nod of approval. "So yes, I did contact Chrissy. She's known you longer than Joe or I have, so I wanted to see if she had any ideas about how we could help you that would open your eyes before it was too late. I had no idea she was gonna text you about it, but I can't say I'm mad or disappointed she did," Colby admitted.

The room remained silent for awhile before Joe finally decided to throw his own two cents in. "Jon, we're not trying to hurt or confuse you anymore than you currently are, we honestly just wanna help you. I know these feelings can be scary; I've been there and dealt with them, just like you are. The trick is admitting them to yourself as well as the other party involved as fast as possible, so you don't miss out on any chance you may possibly have. For two reasons, one it'll help you feel a lot better and lift the weight off your shoulders once you admit it, and two, as already pointed out a number of times, it could give you the shot you want. If you wait, and continue to hide your feelings from her, she's liable to get with another guy. She could possible fall in love and move on with him, without ever knowing how you felt. I know… _**we**_ know… you don't want that."

Jon contemplated what each of his friends had said before finally speaking up. "But what if Mattie doesn't feel the same way I do? What if I pour my god damn heart out to her and she reveals she doesn't like me in that way? Or what if she says she does like me, but doesn't feel we should do this because it wouldn't be fair to Kaelyn's memory? Then what do I do?"

"Then at least you know where you both stand. And you can at least try to move on from there."

"But what if I try like hell, but still can't move on? What if I'm already so far into this that moving on isn't possible?" Neither Joe nor Colby had a response for that question. Neither of them knew Mattie too well, but they didn't think she was the type to turn Jon down without even giving it a fair shot first.

"I think you're over analyzing all of this, Jon. You need to sit down with Mattie and talk to her. Explain everything to her, and give her a chance to figure out her own feelings. You never know, it may just turn out for the better. But you won't know unless you try," Joe said. Jon just shook his head.

"I don't know if I can do this. As much as I wanna take this relationship further than it currently is, I don't wanna lose Mattie as a friend. And I'm afraid if she doesn't have the same feelings, or even if she does, and then something happens during the relationship that causes us to break up, we lose the friendship. Then Sadie gets trapped in the middle. I don't wanna put her through that."

"Take the next couple of days to contemplate your feelings, and then talk to Mattie when you get home. You can't continue to let this build up inside of you. If you do, you'll eventually have a mental break down. That's not good for you, Mattie or Sadie. Think about it for a few days, and then talk to Mattie when you get home," Colby suggested, Joe nodded his head silently agreeing with the youngest Shield member.

"I guess I can do that. Maybe Mattie will know how to deal with all of this better than I do."

"Maybe she will, you never know. For now, get some sleep. We have to be at the gym early tomorrow morning before we head to the arena for the next show," Colby said, as all three teammates found their makeshift beds for the night.

* * *

Jon tried like mad to fall asleep, but nothing he did was working. He just couldn't force himself to sleep. He had too much on his mind. He grabbed his phone from its charger and reopened the previously ignored text message from Chrissy.

'Hey Mox, I just wanted to remind you if you wanna talk, you know I'm always only a text or phone call away. I know the feelings you're experiencing toward Mattie can be a bit confusing, and scary, especially for someone with your life style and background, but everyone faces them at some point. Just text or call me if you wanna talk, you now I'm here, and I'll listen without saying a word to push you in one direction or another, unless, of course, you ask me to.'

Jon kept re-reading the message, wondering if he should text her back. He couldn't call, the huge time difference told him she'd be at work right now, and he didn't wanna get her in trouble if her phone rang, or if she attempted to pick it up. Finally deciding he'd send her a text to call him as soon as she was done work he placed his phone back on the charger, and fought to get comfortable again.

* * *

Jon woke up to the sound of his cell phone ringtone alerting him to a phone call. He didn't even remember falling asleep, but he must have at some point. Grabbing the annoying, ringing electronic device off the table beside the bed, he glanced at the screen. 'Chrissy' was flashing back at him. He suddenly remembered he'd sent her a text telling her to call him as soon as she was done work. That was roughly six hours ago. He had to get up for the gym soon, so he decided to answer the phone call before he had to wake Colby and Joe. "Hello."

"Hey Mox, you said to call you when I got done work, so what's up?"

"Well, at the moment the ceiling appears to be above my head, but the sky is probably above that, sooo…." Jon responded, wiping sleep from his eyes as he trailed off, trying to make light of this entire situation.

"You're such a smart ass. No seriously, what's going on?" Jon sighed.

"Since the last time we talked, a hell of a lot. I don't even know where to begin."

"Well, from the beginning, is always a good starting spot. And no, I don't mean the beginning of your existence, so don't even try to be a smart ass again." Jon laughed.

"You definitely know me too well. Alright well, last time we talked I had no idea I had a daughter. So you said start from the beginning. You remember Kaelyn, right?"

"Yup, she's the girl you dated for about two years before you finally got your WWE contract. Last long term girlfriend that used to come to the CZW shows with you, and had no idea what wrestling was outside of your matches. Yup, remember her well."

"Yeah, well the night before I left for Tampa to start in FCW, I stupidly slept with her unprotected. She got pregnant, and now I have a nineteen-in-a-half-month old daughter, who I only found out existed two-in-a-half-months ago at the Tampa airport. And I only found out about her due to pure dumb luck and the fact the child looks exactly like me."

"You said you 'stupidly slept with her unprotected' are you implying you regret your daughter, Jon?" Jon furrowed his brow.

"No, No! I love my daughter. She's been the light of my life since I found out about her, Chrissy. I could never regret her. The mother I unknowingly chose for her on the other hand, well, that's probably a different story. I loved Kaelyn while we were together. Or at least, I thought I did. Now, I'm not so sure."

"Is that because she kept your daughter from you, or because of the feelings you suddenly have for Mattie?" Jon mauled over the question in his mind for a moment.

"A little bit of a mixture of both, I guess. Every day I wake up thinking about how I missed seventeen-months of my daughter's life. SEVENTEEN MONTHS, Chrissy. No father who wants to be in their child's life should miss any part of it, let alone seventeen months. And every time I think about it, I get more pissed off than the time before because I swore I'd never be a deadbeat like my father was when I was growing up, and by her telling Mattie to keep Sadie away from me as her dying wish, it's exactly what I feel like I was for seventeen months. I absolutely hate that I missed her first steps, words, crawling, everything. Just because her mother had some dying wish of keeping her existents from me for 'my best interest', and her best friend didn't want to abandon that wish."

"And the best friend, that's Mattie, right?" Jon sighed.

"Yeah, the best friend is indeed Mattie."

"So are you more afraid Mattie isn't going to return the feelings because of Kaelyn, or because there just aren't any feelings there to return?"

"I'm not sure, honestly. I mean, I think I'm more afraid because of the whole Kaelyn factor, but then there's a part of me that doesn't see how she could possibly be attracted to me, either."

"Stop Jon, you're not ugly. If you were, you wouldn't even have been able to get the one-night-stands you were so famous for. Yes, some of them only slept with you because of your money, but most of them actually found you attractive. Anyway, I think you should talk to her. Let her tell you exactly how she feels, and then you can both go from there."

"That's what Colby and Joe told me earlier."

"Well, now you have three of us telling you that, so go with it. I know it's scary, especially because you don't wanna lose the friendship you just managed to build with her. But you may not lose it. This may only serve to actually strengthen it. You won't know until you try, so talk to her when you get home, and decide what both of you wanna do from there. You never know, you may just be surprised by the results."

Hearing Chrissy tell him exactly what Joe and Colby had told him earlier made Jon realize he had no way out of this except for talking to Mattie. So that would be what he would have to do as soon as he got home. They'd have to sit down and have one long conversation, and get to the bottom of this entire situation. "Alright, I hear you guys, and I'll sit her down and talk to her as soon as I get home."

"Good deal. Now, on a bit of a lighter note, do I get to see this adorable little girl of yours, or am I barred from that privilege?" Jon laughed.

"No, I have a bunch of photos on my phone. I can text you one as soon as we hang up, if you want."

"Of course I want. If I didn't, I wouldn't have asked to see a photo. We can hang up now and you can send it because I have to do a few things before I meet up with the boyfriend for 'date night', so I'll talk to you later. Send me that picture, though. I wanna see this cutie you tell me you somehow created." Jon shook his head, laughing at Chrissy's lame joke.

"Alright, I'll talk to you later."

As soon as they hung up, Jon started searching through his photo app for the best picture of Sadie to send to Chrissy. He came across one of the two of them together, sitting on the couch making funny faces at Mattie, who was taking the photo with her phone. Jon couldn't resist, he had to send that one to her. Opening their text box, he hit the photo icon to add a photo to the text message and attached it before hitting send.

After his phone told him the photo had been sent successfully, he went back into the photos app and found another cute one of the two of them from a few days before he left for this current trip that made him smile. He was lying on the sofa holding Sadie, and she had her head lying against his chest, her pacifier securely in her little mouth. It was nap time, and she had been refusing to go to sleep for Mattie and Jon, so Jon decided to try to lay down on the couch with her. He had laid there rubbing her back for a good forty-five minutes, hoping it would put her to sleep, but she just wasn't into nap time that day. It may not have put her to sleep, but it sure did give Mattie a great photo-op idea.

Selecting that photo, he attached it to the text message box just as he had done the previous phone, and sent that with the caption 'Most recent photo. Mattie took it a few days before I left for Japan' before finally closing out of the apps on his phone.

About five minutes after Jon had sent the second photo to her, Chrissy finally responded. 'Oh my God, you weren't kidding! She's a fucking spitting image of you. Definitely no way you could deny her. Dear lord, we're all in trouble! lol'

'HEY! We're not in trouble. She's a good kid… for now. Haha. Yeah, I know. Why would I lie about that?'

'Yeah… for now. lol I have no idea. I mean, why do you lie about anything? ;) Haha.'

'Okay, okay, point taken. Alright, I have to wake the other two goobers up so we can get to the gym before tonight's show. I'll talk to Mattie when I get home, and I'll talk to you later. Bye.'

'Talk to you later, Mox. Take care of the precious cargo you now have. ;)'

'Haha. I definitely will. Bye.'

That was the end of their conversation. Jon placed his phone back on its charger on the night table until he was finished getting ready and pulled himself out of bed. As he walked by Colby he purposely smacked him in the head to wake him up before slapping Joe against the shin as he passed him to rouse him from his slumber.


	19. Chapter Eighteen

**Author's Note: Sorry I didn't have this up earlier in the week like I wanted to. Unfortunately, we're getting new computer systems at work, so my work schedule has been anything but friendly. Anyway, hopefully this chapter makes up for making you wait. Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter Eighteen**

* * *

The trip to Japan was successful. Every arena on the schedule had been sold out every night, and every match had the fans behind it, rooting for one competitor or the other, as if it would be the last match they'd ever get the chance to see. Now that they had successfully completed the trip without any injuries, or other unforeseen issues among the competitors, it was time to head back home. Jon was sure this would be the longest plane ride he'd ever have to endure. He couldn't wait to get home so he could see, hug and kiss Sadie until she begged him to let her go.

After hours of watching a stupid movie, that Jon couldn't even tell anyone the plot to because he had really only paid attention to about five minutes of it, they finally landed back in the United States. Getting off the plane, each Shield member went in a different direction. Colby was going to meet up with his girlfriend for lunch; Joe was off to his house for some family time with his fiancée and daughter; and Jon was headed home to finally see Sadie and talk to Mattie about SummerSlam. He had decided he'd have the discussion about SummerSlam first, and then pick his spot to spill his heart out to her. He'd told her the night before on the phone they had to talk, but didn't mention what it was about.

* * *

Mattie had just finished feeding Sadie her lunch and putting her down for her nap when she sat down to pass some of the quiet time by reading a book. Only problem was she wasn't doing much reading. Instead, she was sitting there thinking about what Jon could possibly want to talk to her about in person that he couldn't tell her over the phone? When she realized reading was a dumb idea because she couldn't concentrate, and wasn't getting anywhere in the book, she put her bookmark back in its spot and placed the book down. Looking around at the messy living room, she decided she should clean up the house instead.

She'd been cleaning for a good half hour before she was unexpectedly interrupted. She was so into cleaning up Sadie's toys and the other clutter around the living room that she had never heard the door open or close. Jon stood in the door way, arms crossed over his chest, watching his roommate clean up the untidy room. "So, do you always transform into house-wife-material while I'm away, or is this just a one-time deal," Jon asked, causing Mattie to jump, startled.

"Holy shit, Jon, you scared the fuck outta me," she said throwing one of Sadie's soft plush toys at him. He caught it easily and threw it into the 'toy corner' as they'd dubbed it, cattycorner from where he currently stood.

"Sorry, I didn't realize you startled so easily," he said, chuckling. "I'm gonna go put my stuff away and check on Sadie. Then we can sit and talk about my SummerSlam solution plan. Sound good?" Mattie nodded her head and sat down on the couch to wait for him.

* * *

Jon placed his belongings in his room and then walked over to his daughter's door. Quietly, he opened it and poked his head in. He watched her sleep peacefully for a few minutes. These were some of the kind of moments he found himself living for lately. Sadie was out cold, not doing anything even remotely productive, but just watching her sleep was good enough for Jon. He didn't even have to touch her; just watching her take soft breaths as she slept in person, as opposed to over facetime, was good enough.

Jon finally walked out of the room and silently re-closed the door before walking back to the living room. Now it was time for the ice breaking conversation that he hoped would somehow segue into the much more important conversation. He just wasn't sure how he was going to manage that yet. He'd have to figure it out when he found his segue opportunity.

"Alright, so I told you about the whole trip to Australia and China and how there was no way I'd survive a month without seeing Sadie. So here's the solution I came up with, you and Sadie can fly out to California on the eleventh and spend an entire week with me touring Cali. We can make it a family vacation of sorts. Sound fun?" Mattie gave him a sympathetic smile.

"It does, but Jon you know I can't do that. I have work. My job isn't that flexible. I can't just up and leave it whenever I feel like it."

"You have vacation time, don't you? Use that."

"I do. I guess I could use that, but I'm still not sure how my boss is gonna like that. I haven't been at this branch very long, and it's hard to get the kids extra help when someone goes away. I'll tell you what, I'll try to get the time off, but I'm not making any promises. Sound good?" Jon didn't like the answer, but at least it wasn't a flat out 'no', so for now, he'd take it.

"Yeah, I guess that's good. But what if you can't get the time off? Then what do we do?"

"Then I take SummerSlam weekend off and we come out for just the pay-per-view weekend, and spend the entire weekend with you. I promise you won't go a month without seeing her again. I won't let you." Jon smiled. She'd just given him the exact segue he'd been looking for.

"What about seeing you?" Yup, the perfect segue!

"Well, Sadie can't fly alone, so obviously I'll be there," Mattie said, missing Jon's hidden message.

"Well, I know that. But I was aiming for something a little deeper with that statement…" Jon trailed off. He had no idea how to put any of what he was feeling into words, so what he did next kind of surprised the both of them.

Before Mattie could do or say anything else, Jon's lips were attached to hers. Why or how it happened, she wasn't sure. It was all a bit blurry. One moment he was talking about SummerSlam and taking a trip to LA; the next, his mouth was glued to hers. However, no matter how blurry everything was, Mattie couldn't deny she liked it. His lips were soft as they gently glided over top of hers. She felt him lick her bottom lip a couple of times before she finally granted him full access to her mouth. Their tongues dueled for dominance of the others mouth for a short while before Mattie's brain finally kicked back in and took back control of her body. She lightly shoved Jon's chest, forcing him to back away, which effectively broke the kiss.

Mattie couldn't hide her confusion anymore. "What was that?"

Jon felt so stupid. He'd let his emotions and hormones overtake his mind and body, and now Mattie was going to hate him for it. "Sorry, I shouldn't have done that, I know, but I couldn't help it. I've wanted to do that for awhile, and while we were in Japan I realized how much I liked you. Colby, Joe and Chrissy said I should tell you and let you decide how we handled it, but then I was standing here, trying to find the perfect segue in our conversation; which you did give me, but I fucked it up. I couldn't put my feelings into words, so I just went with the next best option I knew would give you the idea." Mattie put her hand up to stop Jon from talking.

"You don't have to apologize, Jon. I was just caught off guard. I can't say I didn't like it because if I said that, I'd be lying to both of us. But we can't start anything like this with Sadie in the middle. What happens if we break up or something? What happens to Sadie? I don't wanna put her through that."

"Neither do I, but I don't wanna ignore my feelings either, Mattie. Can't we just try this? We can take it slow. I'll even let you control the pace. I know we have a shot at making this into something, if you just give us a fair shot. Please don't shoot me down without a fair chance, Mattie."

Mattie brooded over his statement in her head, trying to come up with one good reason; other than Sadie, why it wouldn't be a good idea for them to try a relationship. It's not that she didn't want to date Jon, but she had seen how he is first hand in relationships before, and she didn't want to get hurt. She couldn't come up with one viable reason not to give him a shot; except for his past relationship with Kaelyn, and how he'd treated her.

"I don't wanna get hurt Jon, and I saw how your relationship with Kaelyn was first hand. You chewed her up and spit her out every chance you got, and I was the one she'd come crying to. I won't be kicked around like she was. I don't even know why she put up with it like she did, but I won't allow you to cheat on me and get away with it. If we do this, we do it on my terms, and if you screw up, you get no re-dos. I'm not Kaelyn. I will not sit idly by while you're on the road cheating on me. So if you want this, you better be sure you're over your one-night-stands and partying phase because I will not hesitate to leave the second you screw up."

Jon knew she wasn't kidding. He also knew she was right about his relationship with Kaelyn being anything but exclusive. But on the other hand, the fact that he hadn't gone out to find a one-night-stand since before Sadie came into his life told him he was ready to try to be in a committed relationship. "I'm more than ready, Mattie. I haven't had a one-night-stand since before you and Sadie came into my life. If you think I'm kidding, call Colby or Joe. They'll tell you I haven't. I've been miserable because I've wanted to be with you. Even before I realized I wanted to be with you, apparently my brain knew something I didn't, and was just leaving me out in the dark. We've gotten so close over the last couple of months, and maybe that makes it feel like we're moving things too fast. If you want to slow things down, we can. If you'd rather we get to know each other further and just let things happen on their own, and not be committed, I can agree to that. As long as you agree to give me a shot, that's all I'm asking for; a chance. Just one chance to prove I want this; all of this! I promise I won't screw it up. If I do, I won't try to get you back. I'll let you go, no questions asked."

"I like the taking things slow, no commitment option. We can always change that. It also gives us a chance to see if we'd be good together, while at the same time, not ruining the friendship we've already built if we decide we're better off a part." Jon saw where she was going. He was all for it, as long as she gave him a chance.

"So then, we're more than friends, but not committed?" Mattie nodded her head.

"Yeah, we're more than friends, but no commitment. This way if you decide you wanna sleep around, you can, and nobody gets hurt." Jon shook his head.

"I highly doubt that will happen, but we'll do this at your pace. You just tell me when you're ready to take the next step, and we will." Mattie nodded.

Each was going to get what they wanted, and that's all Jon cared about right now. As long as he got his chance, he'd find a way to prove to her he was in this for the long haul and find a way to make this a committed relationship eventually. That's all he wanted right now, was a chance, and he was perfectly happy with that; at least, for the time being, anyway.


	20. Chapter Nineteen

**Author's Note: Thanks to everyone reading, reviewing, following and favoriting. It's awesome to get the email saying someone followed the story, or left a review or favorited it. I just finished writing chapter 27 for this story, and I am planning to have about 30 chapters, so I'm almost finished writing it. Obviously, there's still a bit more posting to do, but we're getting somewhere. I have another story in mind, unrelated to this one, but I won't start working throughly on that one until I finish writing this one. I wanna give all of my attention to this story until it's completed. But just so everyone knows I do plan on having another story to post on here. I have also contemplated a sequeal for THIS story, but I'll wait until I finish this one and let you all decide if you want to see a sequel of not. So stay tuned!**

**Alright, onto chapter nineteen. Enjoy! :)**

* * *

**Chapter Nineteen**

* * *

SummerSlam was suddenly upon them, and Jon and Mattie had stuck to their relationship agreement thus far. They were still non-committal toward each other, but she did allow him to kiss her whenever he wanted. Colby, Joe and Chrissy, as well as a few of their other friends, were aware of their circumstance, and were glad they were at least trying out a relationship; even if it was non-exclusive at the moment. Given Jon's background with other relationships, nobody blamed Mattie for being a bit gun-shy about being exclusive. Just like with any other goal in life, Jon had to prove himself before he could have what he wanted.

Sadie was now 19-months-old; her second birthday was still a little ways away, but yet closer than it appeared. This would be the first birthday Jon was gonna be a part of, and despite the fact it was still five-months away, he had already started planning her party without Mattie's help. He was super excited about being involved in this, so Mattie was leaving the reigns in his hands unless he requested help from her. She figured if he needed help, he'd ask for it. He was never shy about doing so before, so she didn't think he would be now, either.

Sadie's vocabulary had continued to expand, and she only became more of a daddy's girl the more she was around him, and the older she got. It was to the point the child hated when Jon had to leave for a road trip. If Mattie didn't distract her as he was leaving, she would stand at the front door and cry her little blue eyes out until she had no tears left to cry. Mattie absolutely hated it. This past trip was even worse because Mattie knew it would be three weeks before they'd get to see Jon in person again. Facetime just wasn't the same; to her or Sadie. Not to mention, Sadie was no calmer after each facetime conversation with him. Every time they'd hang up Sadie would take to moping around the house for at least a good hour; or until something would distract her to take her mind off of her daddy.

If truth be told, Mattie didn't only hate it because of Sadie's feelings, but because of her own, as well. Since they'd started their 'more than friend's' relationship, every time he would leave on a road trip it became harder than the last. Every goodbye kiss was always more passionate than the last. It was almost like Jon was doing it on purpose. He wanted to see how long it would take before she'd finally crack and beg him to be in a committed relationship. Given how hard it was becoming each time he'd leave, she knew it was only a matter of time before he finally got what he wanted, but she was going to be sure to keep him begging a bit longer. Maybe if it took him awhile to get the reward, he'd be even less prone to cheating; which was Mattie's worst fear of giving him the committed relationship he was seeking. You'd think she'd be afraid of his temper because everyone knew he had a short fuse, and her previous relationship with Tyler didn't help, but no. She knew Jon wasn't like that. He definitely had a temper, that was undeniable, but he never lost control of it like Tyler.

* * *

Mattie's boss wouldn't allow her to have the entire week off for SummerSlam, so they'd settled on the entire weekend instead. Even though Jon begged her to quit her job and just come be with him because he had enough money for all three of them to continue living comfortably, she wouldn't do it. She refused to rely on anyone else, so the weekend visit would have to suffice for all of them.

"Alright Sadie, are you ready to get on the airplane and go to LA?"

"Yay! See dada?" Mattie laughed. She had no idea how the child knew exactly what the plan was, but none-the-less, she loved how smart she was at a year-in-a-half-old.

"Yeah, we're gonna go see daddy."

* * *

A few hours later, Jon found himself sitting in the airport waiting for Mattie and Sadie's plane to land. He'd been doing this a lot in the last several months, but he wouldn't ask for anything else. He couldn't wait to see them again. As usual when he saw them after a road trip, he wanted to squeeze Sadie until she begged him to let her go, and he couldn't wait to kiss Mattie. He didn't care who was watching them, or how she felt about the whole PTA thing. To be honest, he wasn't a fan of PTA either, but he hadn't seen her in a couple of weeks, so he was throwing his unwritten 'no PTA' rule out the window just this once. As soon as she stepped off the plane, he was kissing her. He was determined to prove he wanted a committed relationship with her. If kissing her in public, where his insane fan girls could possibly catch sight of it, and talk about it like the idiots they could be, had to be done to help prove it, then he would do it.

The flight was long and draining for Mattie. It felt like it was never ending, but it easily could've been worse if Sadie had been miserable like she had on some of their other flights in the past. As luck would have it, Sadie had slept through a majority of it; and when she was awake, she was content to play with her toys on the snack tray. Mattie couldn't have been happier with her behavior for the entire flight. Maybe it was due to Jon warning her to be good, or she'd be in trouble again. Ever since the one time he'd come home from a trip to find her throwing a temper tantrum in the middle of the living room floor because Mattie wouldn't let her watch a movie before bed, she'd been the perfect little angel. Of course, the talk she got from daddy for the temper tantrum she threw probably stuck in the little girl's mind, too. Clearly, she knew, just from one talk, that daddy wasn't playing when he said she'd be in trouble. Once again, it proved how smart she was, despite being so young.

Stepping off the plane, holding Sadie's hand in hers because the little girl insisted on walking off of the plane, as opposed to being carried, she spotted Jon leaning against a pillar in the middle of the airport, trying his best to be incognito, so he wouldn't get spotted by any crazy fans. She smiled and hunched down toward Sadie. "Wanna go attack daddy?" The little girl had a huge smile on her face as she nodded her head. "Alright, I'm gonna let go of your hand, so you can run to him. But don't run anywhere else, or you know you'll be in big trouble. Go ahead, I'm right behind you," Mattie said ushering the little girl toward Jon. She had barely had time to let go of the little girl's small hand before she took off at a dead run, directly toward her father.

"Dada," the toddler screeched, catching her father's attention.

Jon looked up and had just enough time to kneel down to his daughter's level and catch her just as she catapulted herself toward his muscular body frame. "Hi, baby girl. Did you miss me?"

"'es!" Jon laughed at the enthusiasm lacing Sadie's voice.

"Where's your mama?"

"I'm right behind her. I just decided to let her greet you first for fear I wouldn't be able to keep up with her anyway once she spotted you." Before Mattie had any time to process or say anything else about the situation, Jon had leaned toward her and captured her lips with his. It wasn't a mind blowing kiss, like some in the past few weeks had been, but it was enough to show anyone watching that she was his; whether she wanted to admit it, or not.

"Sorry, you probably hate PTA. I'm not too fond of it myself, especially with the fan girls I have running around, but I had to do that. I've wanted to do that for awhile now." Mattie just shook her head.

"It's fine. We haven't seen each other in awhile, so I'll let it go this time. Just don't go making a habit out of it, that's all."

"The only way I'll make it into a habit is when you agree to take this relationship to the next level." Mattie noticed he didn't say if, but when. She didn't want to give in too easily, but with each kiss, or couple-esque thing he would do every time they saw each other after a road trip he definitely had her teetering on the edge between keeping things as is, and giving in to his wishes. She loved his kisses, and she could only imagine what else he could make her love with his mouth, and tongue for that matter. But she wasn't overeager to find out yet. When she was sure he was ready for a committed relationship, she'd let him show her just how good he could be with that mouth of his. Until then, the kisses they had been sharing would just have to do.


	21. Chapter Twenty

**Chapter Twenty**

* * *

It was Saturday, the day before SummerSlam, and Jon, Joe and Colby had to go do the SummerSlam Axxess autograph singing for WWE. Each group was set up with a two hour time limit; The Shield was scheduled in the eleven to one slot. This just happened to be the earliest time slot of the event, despite the fact they were a part of the house show that took place the night before up in Portland, Oregon, and had to drive back to LA from Portland. They didn't arrive back at the LA hotel until two in the morning. Needless to say, none of them were too pleased about their time slot. As it was, Jon wasn't much of a morning person, so getting up to go do this event after not getting in until late – or, well early - wasn't really sitting well with him. However, he loved his career, so he was going to have to grin and bear it the best he could.

After the guys had left for the Axxess appearance, and Mattie had finished feeding Sadie breakfast, she decided that while the guys were working, she'd take Sadie to the hotel pool with Colby's girlfriend Leighla. She'd run the idea by Jon and Colby, and they had thought that'd be a great idea because it would give Mattie and Leighla a chance to talk. She'd met Leighla the day before, so they weren't complete strangers, but they obviously didn't know each other very well either. But at least Leighla would give Mattie another person to talk to whenever she brought Sadie on the road to see Jon. Leighla didn't always travel with the guys, she had her own job, but she did come out quite a bit. That was enough, though. Mattie could just plan her road trips for when Leighla was around, so she wouldn't be alone with only the guys to talk to.

"Come here, Sadie, let's get you ready for the pool, or you can't swim. Do you wanna swim?"

"'es, mama," the little girl responded, walking over to her to get her bathing suit and sun screen on. Once she had her all ready, she sent a text to Leighla to see if she was ready.

'Yup, I'll meet you outside the room,' was Leighla's quick response.

* * *

The girls took the toddler down to the pool, and Mattie put her little pink and purple life vest on her, and made sure it was zipped and snapped properly before climbing into the pool with her. Leighla followed close behind. They played with Sadie for a bit before the little girl wanted to be independent and swim alone. That scared Mattie a bit. Most one-in-a-half-year-olds were a bit scared of the water, but not Sadie. Just more proof she was a spitting image of her father, from her looks straight down to her personality. They watched Sadie kick her little feet and swim, the life vest doing its job of holding her up atop the water while she enjoyed it.

"So, have you decided what you're gonna do about Jon? I know we don't really know each other, but Colby's told me you guys are sort of together, but not official, and he's been trying to talk you into agreeing to be exclusive," Leighla asked as they watched the little girl swim a few feet away from them.

"I'm honestly not sure. I'll admit he's got me teetering extremely close to the edge of saying yes, and agreeing to whatever he wants, but I know how he is with relationships. My best friend, Kaelyn, dated him for two years, and he treated her like crap for the most part. Part of me thinks that's part of the reason she decided not to tell him about Sadie when she got pregnant, but I don't know that for sure. She only told me she didn't want to ruin his career, and that's why she was keeping Sadie a secret," Mattie admitted, still keeping a close eye on Sadie. "Jon's past worries me. Maybe it shouldn't, but I can't help it. I watched it unfold with my own two eyes, and that makes it hard to block it out now. Especially when he's on the road 200-plus-days out of the year, and I can't be there with him all the time to remind him of what he already has. What if he strays from the relationship as he did with Kaelyn? I've already been hurt in a relationship, and I don't think I can withstand anymore heartbreak."

Leighla could see where Mattie was coming from, but she had to play Devil's advocate here. She had promised Jon she'd try to talk her into an exclusive relationship, and she never broke her promises to friends. "Yeah, but his relationship with Kaelyn was _three years ago_. He was still in the Indies, and nothing down there is secure, at all. Trust me. I lived that life with Colby. It's very stressful and difficult. You have no idea where you're going to be from one day to the next. Jon's older, and more mature now; even has a more stable life now. Yes, he's still traveling like he was in the Indies, but it is different now. He knows where he's going to be from one day to the next, and he knows exactly who he's gonna be with. Perhaps he's actually ready to settle down. Why not give him the chance? I get you're afraid you're going to get hurt, but I've known Jon for a couple years now, and from the time I met him until now I can honestly say I can see a huge change in him. Mainly after that little girl and you came into his life. Granted, he started to change on his own shortly after he signed his contract with the WWE; he stopped smoking, he made sure he had no temptations to go back to any old habits, and he put all his effort into training to get to the main roster as quick as possible. In all honesty, if he hadn't done that, The Shield wouldn't exist. Creative created The Shield because Jon was too good for NXT; which at the time was FCW, but he was to the point where he had no competition. That's why they had him take on William Regal twice and he fought CM Punk in one show. It's also part of the reason he didn't appear in NXT after it switched names. They ended up calling him up to the main roster, and scrounged to find a storyline to put him into, but they kept coming up blank. That's why The Shield was born. That's why the opted to bring up Joe before he was fully ready, it's why Colby made the main roster. Without Jon and managements faith in him, I'm not sure any of them are where they are at today. Joe has gotten a lot better since their debut back in November, and Colby has only gotten better since teaming with Jon. He's done a great job leading them. But I'm way of track. My point is, he's more mature now than he ever was when he was with Kaelyn," Leighla told her, pointing at Sadie who was now playing with another child in the pool about five feet from where her mom and 'aunt' stood talking to each other. "You and that little girl only managed to help him continue his road of maturity."

"He asked you to talk to me, didn't he," Mattie asked as all the information sunk in and the motive to this conversation finally clicked in her brain.

"I won't lie to you, no he didn't, but I did offer. He told me I didn't have to, so don't point fingers at him. I wanted to talk to you because I can see how much he's continued to change, and after meeting you and Sadie, I can see exactly why. The fact he gave me the green light, even after saying I didn't have to, should prove just how serious he is about this entire situation. He's trying to do everything he can to prove to you he wants a committed relationship. Not just any committed relationship, but one with you! Look Mattie, he's a WWE superstar, and you've already said it yourself, in so many words; he could have anyone he wants, but he doesn't want just _anyone._ He wants _**you!**_ I know you're afraid he's gonna cheat, but girl, he hasn't slept with anyone since before you and Sadie came into his life. That was three-in-a-half months ago! No guy who isn't serious about a committed relationship goes one month, let alone three-in-a-half without sex. And a guy like Jon, living the life of luxury that he has, definitely doesn't! I bet this is the longest he's gone without sex since he was a virgin, and he's doing it for _**you.**_ Give him a shot. If he hurts you, then as you're leaving him, you can slap me for getting you into it, and I'll completely understand. Just remember you have to take risks to get rewards, Mattie."

"I don't know. I really have to think about it more. I'll have an answer for him by the end of the weekend, but that's the best I can do. Right now, I just wanna swim with Sadie," Mattie said before ducking under the water and swimming over to Sadie, effectively ending their conversation. Leighla sighed and tilted her head back to look up as she heard heavy footfalls behind her. Looking up, she saw a bare chest, bathing suit clad, Colby.

"No luck," he questioned, as he stuck his feet into the water to slide into the pool next to his girlfriend.

"No. Best I was able to do was talk her into making a decision by tomorrow night. I'm not sure what Jon's gonna have to do, but he's got his work cut out for him. Who knows, maybe that's a good thing; I mean, the harder he has to work to get her to commit, the more he may think if he's ever tempted to cheat." Colby nodded.

"Yeah, maybe you're right."

"Speaking of Jon, where is he? Thought all you guys were supposed to meet us here after you got done at Axxess," Leighla questioned, glancing around for the unnamed 'leader' of The Shield.

"He's coming. He had to go get his bathing suit on. Joe decided he's too tired from our drive back last night, so he's not coming, but Jon will be here any minute." Just as the sentence left Colby's mouth, Jon walked to the edge of the pool closest to Sadie and Mattie and jumped in, effectively splashing them both in the face.

"Ahhhh, dada! NO!" Leighla and Colby laughed as the toddler shrieked her displeasure at her father for splashing her in the face. They swam over and joined the makeshift family as Jon pulled Sadie into his arms.

"Are you having fun swimming? You know your little life vest kind of matches daddy's old uniform vest; except, it's not black like daddy's was." Sadie giggled as she chewed on the edge of her vest, looking over the edge of it into her father's matching blue eyes.

"'es."

"Here, show me how you swim. I'll hold you up, you kick your feet. Swim to Uncle Colby," Jon said, spotting Colby standing just far enough away that Sadie would be able to swim to him with Jon's help.

"Otay dada." Jon laid her on her tummy as she kicked her little feet and moved her tiny arms, while Jon supported most of her body weight. She was trying her damndest to get to Colby, who just kept backing away from her.

"No move unc Coby," she said, mispronouncing his name because of her still shaky motor-skills that continued to improve a little bit more with each passing day. Colby laughed.

"Come get me, and I'll stop moving." Jon laughed at his daughter's sheer determination to get to Colby, despite the fact he kept moving. Just like him, there was absolutely no quit in her little body. He couldn't have denied her if he wanted to. She not only looked like him, she **was** him; just a younger female version. If you didn't know any better, you'd have thought he'd have given birth to her, without Kaelyn's help.

* * *

After Sadie had finally managed to make it to Colby she decided she was tired of playing in the pool, so they all decided to get out and dry off. Or at least that's what they tried to do. Mattie was dry enough to throw her tank top and shorts back on, so she laid her towel down on the chair and attempted to put them back on so she could walk back up to the room they were staying in without freezing too much. But apparently, Jon had other ideas. Before she could pull either article of clothing onto her body, he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and attempted to pick her up and chuck her back into the pool. Mattie foiled his little plan when she grabbed onto his arms and wouldn't let go as she was falling in, successfully pulling him into the water with her. When they resurfaced, Mattie splashed Jon in the face. "You're such an ass! I was just about dry and ready to put my tank top and shorts back on. Now I have to get dried off all over again."

"I wasn't supposed to get wet in that exchange, only you were. Damn you," Jon exclaimed, playfully.

"Good, it serves you right. You shouldn't have been trying to throw me back in anyway," Mattie said, splashing more water in Jon's direction before he reached out and pushed her head down, dunking her beneath the water. Leighla stood holding Sadie on her hip outside the pool, as they, and Colby all laughed at the potential couple's goofy antics.

"Mama an' dada funny," Sadie exclaimed. Leighla nodded, one-hundred percent agreeing with the toddler.

"That they are, Sadie girl; that they indeed are."

* * *

Watching the two in the pool just made Leighla realize she had to find away to help Jon get Mattie to see they belonged together. To any outsider right now, they'd look like a loving couple, fooling around in the pool. To their friends, they were absolutely perfect together. Mattie was the grounded one, and as a result would keep Jon grounded; Jon was the carefree one that, as a result, along with Sadie, would help keep Mattie on her toes and put a little adventure into her life. They were the perfect couple, off-set to the perfect degree. Now Mattie just needed to open her eyes and realize it; they all had to find a way to help her do so.


	22. Chapter Twenty One

**Author's Note: From what I could find, Roman's fiance's name is Jessie, hence the reason I used that name. As everyone knows(well, anyone that's looked) his daughter's name is nowhere on the internet(don't blame them for not releasing it. It gives her a little more privacy growing up.) So I just made up a name, so I wouldn't keep using the word "daughter" when refrrencing her. So I do not "own" her, just the name. Alright, now that that's out of the way, on to chapter twenty one!**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty One**

* * *

It was finally Sunday and Mattie found herself sitting in the backstage area at the Staple Center, with Leighla, Colby, and Sadie. Jon had gone off to prepare for his match by himself in another room; while Joe was off with his daughter and fiancé, Jessie, doing something family related before the show was due to start. At the current time, they all had about two hours to kill until the kick off show, which meant Mattie had about six hours before she had to make her final decision and tell Jon what her plan was. She wasn't sure she was going to be able to give Jon an answer. At least, not the answer he was looking for. Her emotions were a completely conflicted, jumbled mess. Part of her wanted to give into him, see what a relationship with him would be like; the other part told her to protect herself, keep up the walls she had built since the end of her relationship with Tyler, and make him continue to fight for it. Would she be able to ignore that part, throw caution to the wind and just go for it? Leighla's quote from yesterday, 'Just remember, you don't get rewards without risks, Mattie,' just kept replaying on a constant loop within her head. You'd think, if anything; that quote would help sway her decision in one direction or another, but it actually wasn't helping her decide one iota; it was only making it more difficult because she knew it was the truth.

Not to mention, she had no idea what a negative, 'no, not ready' type of decision would do for their current relationship. Would Jon be willing to continue the way they had been going, or decide he was sick of waiting? She didn't want him to call this quits, but she didn't feel ready for commitment. She couldn't force herself into something she wasn't ready for, could she?

She was so lost within her mental conflictions she hadn't even heard Colby talking to her until he lightly tapped her on her shoulder and snapped his fingers in front of her face, trying to get her attention.

"Mattie, did you hear me," he questioned, noticing the distanced look in her eyes. She shook her head, attempting to clear it.

"No, sorry, I was lost in thought. I have a ton of things on my mind right now. What did you say?"

"I asked if you wanted anything from catering. I'm going to grab a bottle of water." Mattie shook her head.

"Oh no, I'm good, thanks."

"Alright, well, don't let your conflicted thoughts get you down too much," Colby said before making his exit from the room. Mattie had no idea how he knew she was having conflicted thoughts. She didn't think she'd made it that obvious, but she figured it was best not to question him because apparently she had, and Leighla confirmed that suspicion when she spoke up from where she was situating Sadie on a blanket in the corner of the locker room with some of her little toys.

"You can tell you're fighting with yourself over there; it's written all over your face. That's how he knew you were having conflicted thoughts, he read your face. What's going on," Leighla questioned.

"Nothing, I'm just thinking a lot this weekend, that's all."

"About 'the decision' you're going to make by the end of tonight, right?" Mattie nodded her head.

"Yeah, I don't have any idea what I'm going to tell him. I just don't feel like I'm ready for a committed relationship yet. I'm afraid if we go any further than we are right now, we'll wreck everything we have built up to this point. I don't want to risk that. I know you have to take risks to get rewards, believe me your quote from yesterday has played on a loop in my head since you said it, but I just don't feel I'm ready to make that leap quite yet. I'm close, but not close enough to dive into it head fist like he wants me to."

"So then tell him you're not ready, just make sure he knows it's not because of him, or his past discretions, and that it's due to you and your insecurities. Make sure he knows it's **you** that's the problem, not him."

"I wish it were that easy, but it won't be. No matter what I tell him, he's gonna think it has to do with his past. That's just how Jon is. He's fucking stubborn as hell, and once he has his mind set on something, you can forget anything else you're going to say because you won't change his mind, or convince him he's wrong."

"Well, that's not your problem. As long as you know you're telling him the truth, that's all that should matter."

"Maybe, but I hate when he doesn't believe what I'm telling him. We have a rough enough time communicating as it is due to my lies at the start of this whole arrangement, so when I'm telling him the truth and he doesn't believe me unless I quote our honesty policy thing we have in place, it frustrates me. I mean, I get why he doesn't believe me at first, and I regret ever lying to him before, but I can't change what's already been done, and him not believing me still pisses me off," Mattie told her as she pulled Sadie into her lap. The little girl had toddled over with a toy in her hand sometime in the midst of their conversation, and wanted to sit on Mattie's lap.

"Well if that's the only way he believes you, then use the honesty agreement to your advantage right off the bat. Tell him that's the reason you're telling him the truth, or something." Mattie thought about what Leighla was saying and nodded her head.

"Maybe I can. I guess if I do it right, that could work."

"You have to do something to make sure he believes you. You also have to cheer up. Almost this entire trip you've seemed really down. This is a mini-vacation, live it up, girl," Leighla said, nudging Mattie's shoulder. Mattie laughed.

"Alright, alright, I'll try. But I'm not making any promises."

"All I ask is that you try," Leighla said.

* * *

With their conversation pretty much over, the girls concentrated on playing with Sadie and keeping her content until the door opening caught their attention. Looking up they watched as Colby re-entered the locker room with his bottle of water and a small bowl filled with fruit. "Well, at least today he made his pre-show snack healthy," Leighla laughed as he sat down on the sofa beside her and took a bite out of a strawberry. Mattie caught sight of the look on Sadie's face and couldn't help but join Leighla in laughing, only not for exactly the same reason.

"Uhh, Colby, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you're not gonna get to eat that all by yourself," she announced as Sadie slid off her lap and made her way over toward Colby, eyes wide with curiosity. "I think Sadie wants some," she laughed as the little girl stood in front of him with a cute little puppy dog 'please' type of look on her little face.

"Oh jeez, now who could possibly say no to that look," he asked, as he handed the toddler a small piece of watermelon.

* * *

Jon had finished up his pre-match routine and walked back into the locker room. As he entered the room, dressed in his gear, he caught sight of his best friend and daughter sharing a bowl of fruit. He laughed. Not so much at the fact they were sharing the fruit, but more at the fact Sadie now had the watermelon juice all over her face and dripping down her chin.

"Mads, I hope you remembered to bring the wipes today because she's got the juice everywhere! I'd say it's a good thing we leave her bib on her all the time because of her drooling from teething, or she'd be absolutely drenched and sticky right now." Sadie had heard him enter the room when he laughed and, being the daddy's girl that she had become, she walked over to him. Holding the uneaten part of her watermelon slice up toward him, silently asking if he wanted some. "No, that's okay, you eat it, daddy doesn't want it," he told her, nudging her hand back toward her mouth. The adults all laughed as she shoved the rest of the watermelon piece into her mouth and began chewing it up.

After she had finished snacking on the fruit, Mattie finally reached for the diaper bag and held up the canister containing Sadie's wipes, answering Jon's earlier question. "Yes, I have her wipes; I never leave the house without them. If I did, I'd likely end up in trouble at some point. She tends to find a mess if she's not making it herself. Come here, Sadie, let mama wipe your hands and face, and get the stickiness off of you," she said. The toddler shook her head 'no'.

"Dada."

Clearly, she wanted Jon to wipe her off. "You're such a daddy's girl," Mattie chuckled. "Here you go daddy, she wants _you_ to do it," Mattie said, stressing the 'you' as she handed the wipe over to him.

"Does she always do that," Leighla asked, watching Jon wipe the sticky mess off his daughter's hands, chin and face.

"Whenever he's around and she knows it, yes she does. It's comical when you think about the fact she had no dad for the first eighteen-months. But then when you think about it, perhaps that's why she's like this. Either way, I have to admit, her love toward her father and watching him return it, is precious," Mattie said, watching Jon help Sadie throw the used wipe into the trash can just as Colby threw out his now empty bowl.

"I have to agree, it is precious."

* * *

Joe, Jessie and their daughter, Gianna, finally returned just before the pre-show was due to start. Jon, Colby and Joe had all headed out to get ready for their parts in the show while Leighla, Mattie and Jessie kept Sadie backstage. They all agreed it was best to watch from backstage because it would be easier to keep both little girls from seeing any of the wrestling. None of the adults felt they were quite old enough for that type of action yet. However, while the little ones were occupied with toys, the adults had the television in the locker room tuned to the match; making sure the screen was facing the opposite direction from the little ones, the three women watched as Dean Ambrose defended his US Title against Rob van Dam.

They watched RVD dominate the early part of the match up until the other two Shield members made their presence known, followed by The Big Show and Mark Henry to even up the odds. From there out it was pretty much back and forth, with neither party really having a huge upper hand over the other until Van Dam managed to hit his patent frog splash. Mattie's mouth dropped open, as did Leighla and Jessie's. They all thought Dean was going to lose his title, until Van Dam stood up and turned around, right into a Roman Reigns spear; effectively ending the match in a disqualification, which of course, retained the title for Dean.

Throughout the match they had found it was a tricky task to watch the match and make sure the girls didn't see anything, but they somehow found a way to do it. Every time one of the girls would walk toward them or the TV, they'd be told to 'go play', which, oddly enough, seemed to work; even on Sadie.

* * *

At eleven-fifteen everything was beginning to calm down; SummerSlam was over. Which meant it was time for Mattie to give Jon her decision. She still wasn't one-hundred-percent sure what she wanted to do, but it was time to give him an answer. Sadie was sleeping peacefully in her stroller, waiting for Jon to finish packing up his bag so he could take them to the airport. As much as Mattie wanted to stay for Raw the following night, she couldn't. She had to get back to work, or her boss would be pissed. Of course, before she left, she had to give Jon her answer because she told him and Leighla she'd have an answer before she left. She couldn't leave him hanging because if she did, they'd be like going against their agreement, and she didn't want to do that.

Jon came out of the shower room located in their locker room, threw his gear into his gear bag, zipped it up and threw it over his shoulder. "I know you wanted to talk, and I told you we could as soon as I was finished showering, but we'll have to do it in the car, or you guys are gonna miss your plane. As much as I'd love to have you here another day, I know you won't be pleased because that would mean you have to deal with your angry boss, so let's get Sadie situated in the car, and head for the airport, and on the way, we can talk. Sound good," Jon questioned, pushing Sadie's stroller toward the locker room door. Mattie nodded, pulling open the locker room door for him and followed him toward the parking garage of the building.

Sadie woke up as they shifted her into her car seat, but quickly fell back to sleep after they secured her pacifier in her mouth and gave her the teddy bear Jon had bought her earlier in the weekend to snuggle with. Folding the stroller, Jon threw it in the trunk before jumping in the driver's seat and beginning to head for the airport. Mattie barely gave Jon time to buckle his seat belt and hit the road before she began talking. "Alright Jon, I'm not going to beat around the bush here, or try to sugar coat anything. I know I told you I'd give you an answer to our… situation… by the time I left, so here it goes. You told me to be honest with you no matter what, so I am. I'm just not ready for a committed relationship right now. Just understand my decision has absolutely _nothing_ to do with you, or your relationship with Kaelyn, and everything to do with me and my previous relationship with Tyler. After everything that went down there I'm just not ready yet. We can continue with what we've been doing if you want to, but I can't commit right now. That doesn't mean I won't ever commit, it just means at this point in time, I'm not ready," Mattie finally spilled. She couldn't keep it bottled up inside anymore.

The rest of the ride to the airport the car was silent. Mattie hated his lack of a reaction. She couldn't tell if he was pissed off, or just lost in his own thoughts trying to find the best way to respond. Jon pulled into a parking space in the airport parking lot and glanced at the clock on the dashboard. They still had forty-five minutes until she had to be on the plane. "I hate how quiet you're being, Jon. Please say something, anything," Mattie pleaded. Her only response was Jon shaking his head as he undid his seat belt and climbed out of the car to go get Sadie out of her car seat. Mattie followed him, defeated. It felt like she'd just done exactly what she was trying to avoid, she'd destroyed everything they'd worked so hard to built up to this point.


	23. Chapter Twenty Two

**Author's Note: And the plot thickens just a bit in this chapter... :)**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty Two**

* * *

After getting out of the car, Jon stopped just short of the car's back door. He was frozen to the spot as he eyed Mattie before deciding to pull only her luggage out of the trunk. Mattie was confused. He hadn't pulled Sadie's things, or Sadie for that matter, out of the car, and she wasn't sure why. Shrugging her shoulders, she reached for the back door handle before Jon put his hand on the door holding it shut before she could even pull it open. "No, I decided she's staying with me. You have to go back to work, that's fine, you go, but Jessie, Gia, and Leighla are all still here, so I've decided I'm keeping Sadie with me," Jon said, a cold tone to his voice. Mattie shook her head, slowly beginning to slip into panic mode.

"Jon, you can't do that. She has to go to daycare. We've already paid for it for this month."

"No see, that's where you're wrong. You didn't pay for shit, _**I**_ already paid for it, it's my money, and I'm okay with not using it, or sending her. I'm her biological father, and therefore I have the right to make this decision without confronting you, the _adopted mother_, about it. She's staying with me. And if you try to pull her out of that car when I move my hand, I'm gonna get even angrier than I currently am. And we both know how much you hate when that happens. So your best bet is to just get your luggage and go catch your plane, Mattie. I will bring her home with me when I come home," Jon informed her. He knew what he was saying was hurtful and mean, but at the moment the part of his brain that would usually remind him to be rational about this whole thing had been turned off.

Mattie picked up her belongings and walked toward the inside of the airport as Jon climbed back in the car and peeled out of the airport; Sadie still sleeping peacefully in the backseat, none-the-wiser about the ordeal between her parents. Mattie was almost distraught. She couldn't believe he'd actually thrown the "biological father versus adoptive mother" card at her. That had stung, much more then she'd ever admit to anybody; especially him. It was quite obvious her decision not to commit had pissed him off and caused her to lose a lot more than she had initially realized; which was exactly what she had been trying to avoid in this whole mess.

* * *

Mattie arrived back in Tampa at five o'clock in the morning. Trips going from coast-to-coast were long and draining, but despite being exhausted from the flight, she still found herself lost in thought about everything that had happened in the last seventy-two hours as she lay in bed trying to get some sleep. Everything from how she and Jon being a happy potential couple and makeshift family, to whatever they were now played in her head, and she knew the entire current situation was all her fault. Her life was now a complete mess all thanks to the past that wouldn't stop haunting her. At this point, she just wanted to crawl in a hole and never come back out.

Instead of hiding from the world until she died, she grabbed her phone and quickly sent Jon a text telling him she was sorry for everything, and she hoped they could talk when he got home; whenever that would happen to be. WWE still had two weeks of shows out west, and she had no idea what Leighla or Jessie's schedule's consisted of, so she wasn't sure if he was coming home with Sadie on his 'down time' days this week, or staying out west. With the way things had fallen apart before she had flown home, that discussion topic had never been brought up.

* * *

Jon went back to the arena to pick up Joe, Jessie, Gianna, Colby and Leighla. Unlike Mattie, Jessie and Leighla were staying on the tour with them for a little while longer because they had vacation time at work they needed to burn, or they would eventually lose it.

Upon climbing into the car, all of them noticed Sadie was still securely in her car seat, and they could all tell Jon was pissed. He didn't have to say a word because his face did all the talking for him. They all knew Mattie was supposed to give him her decision about their relationship before leaving, and figured it had something to do with that, but they thought it best to just keep quiet about it for now. If he wanted to talk, he'd start the conversation, but the fact Sadie was still with him surely wasn't a good sign. She was supposed to go home with Mattie, but instead, she was still with her father. That was definitely not a sign of anything good.

* * *

Jon drove to Anaheim without a word being said; the car was dead silent. Of course, with two little girls sleeping peacefully in their respected car seats, a silent ride was probably a good thing. But Colby couldn't help but wonder why Jon had kept Sadie. He knew he had plenty of help and she wouldn't get bored because despite being a little older than Sadie, Gia loved to play with her. But there was a specific reason Jon had asked Mattie to move in with him; he couldn't take care of Sadie by himself. This was definitely going to be a trip filled with a ton of adventure.

They arrived at the Anaheim hotel they'd be staying at and Jon and Joe both grabbed their daughter's gently from their safety seats and carried them into the hotel. Jon placed Sadie gently on the bed he'd be sleeping in for the night and got himself ready for bed. He knew he should probably put her in her pack-n-play, but it was late and he didn't feel like dealing with setting it up right now. Between his match from earlier and what he thought was a fucked up decision by Mattie, he was mentally, emotionally, and physically drained. He just wanted to lay with his daughter and get some rest.

Climbing in the bed beside her he lay down next to her and gently ran his fingers through her thick blonde tresses before kissing her temple. He wasn't sure how he was going to manage to be a father and work alone for this next week, but he was bound and determined to figure it out. He'd have to explain to Jessie and Leighla what had happened and see if they could help because if Mattie didn't want him exclusively, then she was gonna have to get use to not having Sadie around as much because as far as Jon was concerned, Sadie and him were now a packaged deal.

Right before Jon dozed off thinking about everything that had happened over the weekend, he heard his phone beep, signaling a text message. Seeing it was from Mattie, he ignored it. She had made her bed, and now she had to get use to lying in it. Of course, the more he thought about that, the more he realized he had to, too. Her decision affected the both of them. And Jon hated everything about it. He wanted to be with her; show her he had changed, have a makeshift family with her, but she wouldn't let him, and that hurt and pissed him off all at the same time. But there was nothing he could do about it. Except hurt and piss her off right back that is. And he was fairly sure taking Sadie away from her for awhile was going to do exactly that, and while he hated hurting her, and he knew two 'wrongs' don't make a 'right', he was hoping this twist in events would help her change her mind and finally give him a chance. But only time would be the ultimate judge on that.


	24. Chapter Twenty Three

**Author's Note: Apparently, that last chapter backfired on me a bit. I wasn't trying to make Jon out to be the bad guy. Yes, him keeping Sadie to spite Mattie looked bad, but that wasn't his sole purpose for keeping her. He kept her because if you remember the Japan trip, he hated leaving her behind. This gave him a chance to spend more time with her. I guess I failed on showing that. Sorry. **

**This chapter is short, just basically a filler, but hang with me. I completed typing up the story about fifteen-minutes ago, so from here out the updates may come a bit quicker, depending on the feedback - which you guys have been awesome at. Thank you, keep it up! Anyway, the story will officially be Thirty Chapters long, so there's six chapter's left after this one. After I post chapter thirty, you all can let me know if you want a sequel or not. If you do, it won't be posted for awhile, but I'll start working on it if you want it. **

**Okay, I've rambled enough. Onto the chapter.**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty Three**

* * *

It had been three days since Jon had dropped Mattie off at the airport in Los Angeles; three long, lonely, agonizing days of nothing but thinking for the both of them. The group had opted to stay out west until the following Wednesday, when the other two girls had to get back to work. It was vacation time, and they'd all decided to enjoy it out on the west coast. So Jon found himself sitting on the bed in the hotel room, next to Sadie's pack-n-play, watching her take her afternoon nap, doing the exact opposite. He was miserable as he did just as he had done the previous days; he thought about everything that had happened with Mattie over the weekend. He'd explained the ordeal to Stephanie and Paul, and they had agreed to get each Shield member their own hotel room for the time being, while their families were with them, instead of having them all room together like they usually would.

Jon had read Mattie's text the night she sent it, and re-read it the following morning, but opted not to answer it. He and Sadie were doing just fine on their own. Granted, when he was off making an appearance, working out in the gym, rehearsing, practicing in the ring, or actually working, Leighla and Jessie were helping him out by watching Sadie, and Sadie had no complaints about it because she loved playing with Gia. He couldn't, and wouldn't, deny he missed Mattie, but every time he thought about her, or attempted to finally return her text and attempt to fix this mess, he remembered the reason for the mess; she had basically told him she didn't want him, and he'd retreat away from contacting her again.

Oddly enough, Sadie hadn't asked about her yet, or even seemed to notice she was missing. Jon had been for sure that as soon as Sadie woke up Monday morning, she'd be looking for Mattie, but she woke up and hadn't even seemed phased by the fact Mattie had gone missing from the picture. Jon wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing, but he wasn't going to point out Mattie was missing unless Sadie picked up on it herself. The little girl was old enough, and smart enough, to notice such things on her own without any help from him.

* * *

Mattie hadn't heard or talked to Jon or Sadie since her and Jon's miniature airport dispute. She knew he had read her text since she sent it because he had his iPhone 'read receipt' feature turned on, so people who also had an iPhone would know when he read their text, but he was clearly ignoring her. She had been talking to Leighla, through text, and she had told her that she and Jessie had been helping him out with Sadie. Mattie definitely missed her, and as much as she hated to admit it, she missed Jon, too. She missed them so much she couldn't stay home alone too often because if she did, she got to thinking about how she'd ruined everything. As a result, she'd asked for as many hours as they could give her down at the orphanage she worked at. Her boss knew she had a child, so her asking for as many hours as possible, including overnight hours, confused him, but he never asked for any details concerning why she was suddenly able to work overnight hours, and Mattie never revealed any. She just wanted to keep her mind off Jon and Sadie because his split second stunt idea of keeping Sadie with him to get her to cave was slowly working to perfection, despite the hurtful words he'd said to her in the midst of their ordeal in the airport parking lot. And she hated it.

One thing Mattie didn't want was to be pressured into anything, especially a relationship, but the more she thought about Jon and everything that had happened that weekend, the more she realized he had never been the one to actually pressure her. He never gave her any ultimatums telling her she had to give him an answer by Sunday night; no, that was her decision after her talk with Leighla. Yes, he'd been a little pushy about the whole thing, trying to get her to commit, but he'd never once threatened to leave her if she didn't agree, and yet after her talk with Leighla, she felt like she had to give him an answer by the end of the weekend. But it wasn't Jon that had pressured her, it was Leighla. She probably hadn't meant to make Mattie feel pressured, but ultimately, she had.

With that realization setting in, Mattie knew she had to find a way to get Jon to answer her before he got home. They had to start communicating before they were face-to-face because otherwise this face-to-face confrontation would likely end the exact same way the airport confrontation had ended; with someone walking away pissed off. They couldn't keep doing that. If they wanted any kind of relationship, they had to learn to work through their altercations without walking away from one another, with the altercation still intact. Grabbing her phone, she sent him another text, hoping he'd actually respond to this one.

* * *

Jon sat in the hotel room quietly, still waiting for Sadie to wake up. She'd been asleep for about two hours, so she should have been waking up any minute. Feeling his phone vibrate against his thigh, he dug it out of his pocket and flinched a little when he saw Mattie's name displayed on the screen. This had been the first time she'd attempted to contact him since the other night. Jon wasn't sure he wanted to know what the message said, nor was he sure he was ready to talk to her, but he opened it up and read it anyway.

'Hey Jon, look I know we didn't end things the other night on good terms, but if you want a relationship then we can't keep walking away from altercations like this. No, I'm not saying we can have a relationship; at least, not an exclusive one, but I'm not denying I want one eventually, either. Everything I told you was the absolute truth. After everything that went down with Tyler, I'm just not ready. I'm sorry if you can't understand that, but I'm being honest with you. That's what you asked for, so that's what I'm giving you. And I know you never pressured me into making that decision the other night, but the conversation with Leighla on Saturday had me thinking that I had to do something, and that was the only thing I could think to do. I want you to know I miss you and Sadie more then I can put into words, and I hate that we're fighting. I'm hoping you'll respond to this, but I'm not going to hold my breath. Just know I miss you both and can't wait until you get home, whenever that is. I'll talk to you if/when you respond to this; otherwise, next week when you get home. Bye.'

Jon re-read her message three times, and while he wasn't positive about her being one-hundred-percent honest with him due to past incidents, he couldn't help but feel confident everything she said was the truth. She had said the other night they could continue with the way things were, in a non-committed, non-exclusive relationship, but Jon had ignored that part and focused on the rest of it. He knew neither of them was being fair in this whole thing, and they definitely needed to talk. But he wasn't sure if he wanted to do that with a response in a text, or if he'd rather wait until he got home next Wednesday. He just sat there, his phone in his hand, staring at her text trying to decide it was worth responding to in a text or if he should wait and have this discussion face-to-face.


	25. Chapter Twenty Four

**Author's Note: Remember when I said there's be more cliffhangers in the story? Sorry. Don't hate me...**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty Four**

* * *

Jon glanced away from his phone as Sadie began to stir from her nap. He'd slowly begun to type a response to Mattie, but it appeared he wouldn't get to send it because his daughter had chosen that time to slowly begin waking up. He originally wanted to tell her he had time to think about everything, and he understood where she was coming from, but he didn't have time to type it all out, so instead he erased everything he had typed and quickly and simply typed 'We'll talk about it when I get home next week', and sent it.

Sadie used her little fists to rub the sleep from her eyes before pulling herself into a standing position along the side of her portable crib. She glanced around the room before spotting Jon and raising her tiny arms above her head. "Dada, up," Sadie exclaimed. He placed his phone down on the bed side table and stood up, pulling his daughter out of her crib.

"Do you need to be changed," he questioned, even though he knew she wouldn't give him an answer. She probably wasn't even actually sure what he'd asked. Not that he needed a response because he already knew the answer was a yes without any real need for confirmation; she'd been asleep for two hours, so of course she needed to be changed. Grabbing a diaper from her diaper bag, he laid her down on the floor and quickly changed her diaper before redressing her and pulling her back up to her feet. He remembered when he had no idea how to change a diaper or re-snap a onesie not too long ago, and yet here he stood, redressing his daughter sans any help. In such a short time he'd become a pro at it, and he had only Mattie to thank for it.

Jon's growling stomach interrupted his thoughts and brought him back to reality. "You wanna go get something to eat? Daddy's hungry," he asked Sadie as he slipped her little shoes, that he'd taken off before her nap, back onto her little feet. She nodded her head.

"Hungy, dada," Sadie announced, running towards the door of the room.

"No, Sadie. You have to wait for daddy. I have to get my wallet and phone, as well as your diaper bag. Then we have to go see if Uncle Colby, aunt Leighla, uncle Joe, aunt Jessie and Gia wanna come along," Jon told her, making sure he had all the essentials needed for an outing with a nineteen-month-old. He gathered his daughter in his arms and headed out of the hotel room, going toward his best friend's respected rooms. They were across the hall from one another, so to make it easy and quick on himself he placed Sadie back down on her feet next to him and knocked on both of their doors at the same time. Colby and Joe opened their respected doors at the same time. "Hey guys, I'm taking Sadie to get something to eat. Do you guys wanna join us?"

"Yeah sure, sounds like a better option than the one we currently have. There's nothing to eat in our room, and I'm a little sick of room service's food. Leighla and I were actually just looking for another option. Where are you taking Sadie," Colby questioned. Joe nodded his agreement, letting them know he, Jessie and Gia would more than gladly join them.

"I'm not sure yet, I was just gonna drive around and see what ended up catching my eye," Jon told them.

"Alright, sounds like a plan. We'll meet you down in the lobby in about ten minutes. We just have to let our better halves know and I have to get Gia ready," Joe said. Jon nodded his head and headed toward the elevator with his daughter to head down to the lobby to await his best friends and their other, better halves.

* * *

Joe finally had Gia ready, so he and Jessie took her to meet up with Colby, Leighla, Jon and Sadie. They all climbed into their rented van and began driving around the strange and unfamiliar city. They drove around searching for the best places to eat until they finally came across an Olive Garden they all agreed was good enough. The adults climbed from the van, pulling the two small girls from their car seats and heading inside. It was a little crowded, so they were told it would be a fifteen to twenty minute wait. After making sure everyone was fine with that, Jon gave his name so they'd know who to call when a table was finally available.

Luckily it only took about fifteen minutes before they were finally given a table. Once seated at their table, Jon pulled his phone from his pocket just to see if he had any calls or texts that may need his immediate attention. All that he was greeted with was another text from Mattie staring back at him. She was just letting him know she'd be ready to talk when he got home. Noticing the look on his face, Colby cleared his throat successfully breaking into Jon's thoughts. "Got something on your mind there, Jon?"

"Uhh, yeah, I guess there is." Jon had thought about denying it, and just moving along with their dinner without the mention of Mattie. He knew they'd drop it if he denied it, but he also knew they'd only drop it temporarily. Why delay the inevitable? "I guess I'm just missing Mattie more than I thought I ever would. There's a part of me that wishes I hadn't fallen for her because right now, I'd take her as my best friend, just to be able to talk to her, or have her near me, then whatever it is we currently are. I hate fighting with her." He paused and chuckled lowly. "That's actually kind of funny coming from me. I mean, when you think about my life and how I grew up. Fighting was literally all I knew when I was a kid. I fought with everybody; prided myself on it at one point, and here I sit, actually kicking myself for fighting with someone. I honestly never thought I'd see this day," Jon said shaking his head in semi-disbelief.

"If that's truly how you feel then you need to talk to her," Colby said, the other adults at the table agreeing with him with a nod of their heads.

"He's right. You need to talk to her. Figure out how you want this whole thing to work out. If you want her to be in a relationship with you then you need to do it at her pace, on her terms. I know you want to be exclusive now, but she clearly doesn't, so if you want her like you say you do, then you need to take it slow and do everything at her pace. No matter how much you hate it, that's the only way you'll be able to have her exclusively. I mean, think about it. Really think about it. Is it really so bad to go at her pace? It's just like taking the scenic route on a road trip, you see more, learn more, but in the end you wind up exactly where you were supposed to, and where you wanted to be. You end up together! Maybe it's what's best for both of you. Maybe if you do it her way, at her pace, you'll prove to her you've finally matured," Leighla said, trying to help.

Jon could see what they were saying, and he knew they were right. This fight they had been having was admittedly stupid. "I guess you guys are right. But I'm not so sure this conversation is really the type of conversation I should be having with her over the phone, is it?"

"This is the type of conversation you have as soon as you know what to say. With our life, we're not like 'normal' people. You're not going to see Mattie tomorrow. Yes, under 'normal' circumstances, this would be the type of conversation to have face-to-face, but with our life style, sometimes these things have to happen via the telephone. As long as you're sure of what you want, it doesn't matter where you are; you stop and talk; even if it's not face-to-face. If that means the conversation happens over the phone, so be it. At least you'll both know where the other stands in this whole situation and this fight will finally be over," Jessie told him as he listened intently. Before he could say anything she continued. "Look Jon, we're only trying to help. We hate seeing you and Mattie so miserable. Every day it's the same routine, and the same moping. It's time to put a stop to it before it starts effecting Sadie. Kids are sensitive. It's surprising she hasn't picked up on this yet, as smart as she is, so if you know how to do that, then do it, before she does pick up on it." Jon nodded his head. She was right. It was only a matter of time before Sadie started noticing the problems between Jon and Mattie, and he didn't want his daughter to live through that at all.

"Okay, okay, you guys win. Do you guys mind keeping an eye on her for a bit," Jon questioned, nodding his head in Sadie's direction. They shook their heads and silently waved him away with their hands. Sadie was too busy playing with Gia and the crayons on the table to notice her father's departure from the table. Joe and Jessie made sure to keep her and Gia busy playing quietly on the children's menu coloring place mat they received upon entering the restaurant, or eating the appetizers the adults had ordered, to notice Jon had gone missing.

* * *

Jon sat on a bench outside the restaurant as he hit the send button on Mattie's contact selection in his phone. Listening to it ring, he hoped she'd answer. He didn't have to wait long before he heard her voice on the other end. The only problem was she almost sounded like she was in a panic. But he couldn't make out what she said because she sounded like she was far off in the distance, or even underwater. Jon's stomach clenched and flip. He automatically knew something wasn't right just by the far-off sound on the phone, and the fact she sounded panicked, and that scared him. "Mattie calm down, what's going on," Jon questioned. He never received a direct response. All he heard was what sounded like something crashing against something. Now he, himself, was beginning to hit panic mode. What the hell was going on? "Madelyn, what the fuck is going on? ANSWER ME," Jon exclaimed loudly into the phone. But there was still no direct response. He could hear a bunch of muffled noises in the background, along with voices, so he definitely knew somebody was still on the other line. Now he was really hating and regretting this fight. He was thousands of miles away, and Mattie was clearly in some type of trouble, and there wasn't a damn thing he could do to help her.


	26. Chapter Twenty Five

**Author's Note: There's a little bit of "Mature" ranked content in this chapter, so beware!**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty Five**

* * *

After numerous futile attempts to get Mattie to answer him, Jon finally gave up and quickly hung up the phone. He ran back into the restaurant and told the rest of the group everything about the call. "I have to get back there, guys. I have to make sure she's okay. I couldn't make out anything that she was saying, or what exactly was going on, but I can definitely tell you whatever it was, isn't good. When something sounds like it's breaking against a wall, it's not a good thing. It just can't be," Jon exclaimed, almost hyperventilating.

"Jon, you need to calm down. You're not thinking clearly right now. If something bad is happening, you'll never make it back there in time. From here to Florida, it's like a six hour flight. You need to call nine-one-one and inform them that you are in California but when you called your roommate someone answered her phone, but didn't respond to you. Instead all you heard was a bunch of muffled voices and noises and a ton of uneasy commotion. You also have to tell them you're pretty sure you heard something break and ask them to check it out and make sure everything is okay at your apartment," Leighla calmly told him, being the only one able to think quickly enough to come up with a rational solution to help Mattie if she was indeed in trouble. Jon quickly nodded his head and yanked his phone back out of the confines of his pocked to call nine-one-one.

As he paid the bill and gathered his party of friends to head to the van, he informed the emergency operator what was going on, and what township he needed before giving his apartment address. They told him they'd check it out but he didn't like how uninterested the operator had sounded. Them telling him they'd check it out sounded like they thought it was just a party and they'd break it up after a neighbor complained, or as a cop drove by on 'look out' later in the night. No, he couldn't wait for them to send somebody hours later, he wanted something done now. He knew Mattie needed something done **now.**

When Jon hung up with the emergency operator he shook his head. "They didn't seem all that concerned, but I know something is wrong. I can feel it! I'm calling Sami. There's nobody else close enough to my apartment that can check this out for me. Everyone is here. Yes, he's in Orlando, so he's an hour away from my apartment, but he's a hell of a lot closer than I am, and if the police aren't going to do anything to react quickly, I need somebody who can ease my mind." None of them had ever seen Jon so panic stricken before. He definitely sensed something was going on, and it clearly scared him, so none of them tried to stop him as he sent the phone call to Sami. Jon sat in the driver seat, still in park in the Olive Garden parking lot, and drummed his fingers against the steering wheel. He swallowed hard and tried to fight back the horrible thoughts racing through his mind as he waited for Sami to answer his phone.

"Hey Jon, I haven't heard from you since I signed my contract three months ago. So why are you suddenly calling me?"

Jon didn't answer Sami's question; at least, not directly. "Sami, look I know we haven't been on the greatest terms in recent months, but I need you to do me a huge favor. I need you to go to my apartment and check up on Mattie. She and I have been seeing each other non-exclusively for about a month now, and I pushed her too much last weekend and it caused us to get into a huge fight before she left on Sunday night. I had been avoiding her, but tonight I decided we needed to talk. However, when I called she answered, but she wasn't talking to me. There was a whole bunch of noise in the background, and she sounded like she was drowning or something, and I'm positive I heard something smash against a wall. She wouldn't randomly break something against a wall just to scare me. Please go check it out for me. I'm begging you, Sami, and you know I'm not usually one to beg."

Sami thought that Jon was probably blowing this whole thing out of proportion, but he'd never heard his best friend so panic stricken before, and he was right, he wasn't one to beg; hell, he wasn't one that showed his feelings often, let alone begged for someone to help him. "Alright, alright, I'll go. I'll call you back as soon as I get there and let you know what I find. In the mean time, you need to try to calm down a bit. You have a child to think about now, and being all worked up like this isn't helping Mattie you or her. So just try to calm down. Okay?"

"Yeah, I know. I'll try, but I'm not guaranteeing anything. Thanks man. You still have the extra key I gave you awhile back, right?"

"No problem. Yeah, I still have it. I'm walking out of my house now. I'll call you in about an hour, or so."

"Okay, don't knock just use the key and walk in. If there's somebody there, I don't want them to be aware you're there until it's too late; I want them caught off guard. Thanks again,"

"Will do man. I'll call out back in a little while," Sami said before they both hung up. Jon started the car and began driving back toward the hotel. "Sorry I cut dinner short you guys. I just have this really bad gut feeling that something is going terribly wrong, and Mattie's in big trouble. Sami's going to check it out, and then he'll call me back, so I'm gonna wait for him to call me back before I do anything drastic. Joe, Jessie can you guys keep Sadie with you for a while? I'm a mess right now, and I don't want her to sense my panic because I'm sure it'll upset her. If you guys keep her, she can play with Gia, and I can keep from affecting her for as long as possible."

"Sure man, no problem. Just let us know when you hear something from Sami," Joe responded.

"I will, believe me."

* * *

Mattie couldn't believe this was happening. As soon as her phone rang they both dove for it. She had gotten to it first and managed to see her caller ID was flashing 'Jon'. She quickly answered it, but before she could say anything to him the phone was whacked out of her hand. She knew she was in trouble, and she had no idea how she was going to get out of it this time. "Did you honestly believe I wouldn't find you? Where's the bitch of a child you brought home from the orphanage when she was born because she was your best friends? Don't give me that look, where the fuck is she?"

Mattie refused to answer his question. Instead, the only thing she said was "Don't talk about her like that." Mattie felt the red hot sting of the back of his hand slamming against her cheek. She was already bleeding from her lip and her eye was already turning into a nice shiner. There was a knock on the door just after she had sent the text to Jon. She should have used the peep hole, but she never thought he'd fine her. As soon as she opened the door, the first thing he did was punch her in the face. It knocked her backward, off balance, and she had seen stars briefly, so she never had a chance to slam the door in his face and relock it.

He grabbed her by the throat and slammed her hard against the wall behind her. "I'll talk about anybody I want, anyway I want. You can't tell me what to do, or how to talk. Now, where the fuck is the little brat?"

"She's with her father," Mattie gasped out.

"Oh good, that will be one less person to worry about torturing," he said, a sadistic smirk on his face. He loosened his grip on her throat and leaned toward her. "That leaves just you, and we both know you're putty in my hands because you always were," the guy said as he pulled at the buttons on Mattie's shirt.

Mattie knew she had to fight. She couldn't allow him to do this, and if he was gonna do this he wasn't going to get it so easily this time. Mattie decided her best method of defense was a false sense of security, but in order to do that, she had to mask her fear. If he sensed fear, he'd be an untrained pit bull on an innocent bystander. "You're right, I was." His smirk grew even more sadistic, if at all possible, as he groped her left breast. Mattie faked a moan as best she could, so he wouldn't know she was playing him.

"Yeah, you always liked it rough," he mumbled against her lips as he kissed her roughly; his right hand coming up to squeeze her left breast. Now he had both hands squeezing and manipulating her breasts through her red lace bra; he had long ago discarded her shirt. His lips trailed down to her collar bone and he bit down hard as he squeezed both breasts. He laughed evilly as he realized how easily her body was responding to him. Her breasts needed little manipulation before the nipples were beaded and he didn't have to touch her more intimate area to know she was soaked. "You haven't had sex since the last time you were with me, have you? You know how I can tell? You're body is responding to my touch entirely too easily. You're such a sad, hermit of a woman."

Mattie hated that he was able to gather that just from touching her. "Well, if that's what you think, why are you making me wait? The bed's behind you," Mattie responded. So far, her plan was working perfectly.

"Good call, hot stuff," he said. Turning them around he began unbuttoning and unzipping his pants as he nudged her back toward her bed. He was too stupid to realize he was doing exactly what she wanted him to and it was playing right into her hands. As soon as they hit the bed, she was able to flip them over so she was straddling his waist.

"I wanna trying something different. It's always been a fantasy of mine, so let me do this okay," Mattie asked, in a sexy monotone.

"Mmm, you know I love fantasies, so by all means, go ahead and show me."

"Okay, I'll be right back," she said going over to the closet and opening the box of sex toys she kept hidden in there. Not even Jon knew about them, but given their relationship hadn't made it that far yet, it made sense she wouldn't have told him about them. If they ever made it past this fight, perhaps she would eventually tell him about them. Grabbing the blind fold, two sets of handcuffs and the thing of feet shackles she kept in there, she walked back into the room. "Alright, I'm gonna put this blind fold on you. It'll make the experience better," she lied.

"Ohh, this sounds like this is gonna be fun," he responded back. Mattie placed the blind fold on him and then quickly hooked the handcuffs to the metal rod on her head bored and wrapped the shackles around the base board of the bad before quickly hooking them to him. "What the fuck is going on," he roared as he realized he was trapped.

"What do you mean? I told you, we're gonna have fun with this," Mattie swallowed hard, praying he'd bought this lie just as he had the previous ones.

"I didn't agree to be handcuffed and shackled to your bed. Unpin me, NOW," he screamed.

"Nope, I can't do that. It'll take away from the fun of the experience," Mattie said as she quietly backed toward the door. By this point, he was yanking on the restraints, trying to break free. She ran out of the room as the first handcuff broke. She knew they wouldn't hold if he got restless. They weren't real handcuffs, so they were only made up of plastic. She ran for the front door just as she saw the door knob begin to turn. She froze and started to go into another state of panic. She was out of ideas. She had no idea how she was going to escape him and, who she assumed was, his friend when she had just barely escaped him; which she hadn't actually done yet because he'd manage to break free soon if she didn't get out of there.

The door opened the rest of the way revealing Sami. Mattie felt a wave of relief wash over her as Sami stepped into her apartment. "Sami, thank the lord," Mattie exclaimed as she ran and leaped into his arms. He caught her with ease just as they heard the final restraint pop loose. "I have never been happier to see someone walk through that door." The distinct sound of plastic cracking as he finally broke free filtered out of the bedroom.

"Mattie, what the hell is going on? Jon's worried sick! That's why I'm here, he sent me; who the fuck is in there?"

"Tyler found me, Sami, and he was trying to rape me, but I tricked him into thinking I wanted him, and I used a phony fantasy excuse on him and managed to use handcuffs and shackles to pin him to the bed. But the restrains were only made of plastic, so it was only a matter of time before he broke loose, that's why I was trying to get out of here." Sami nodded as he took his button down shirt off and handed it and his cell phone over to her.

"Put this on to cover yourself up and go outside. Use my phone and call nine-one-one and tell them we need police here right now. After you do that, I want you to call Jon. Let him know his suspicion was right but that you're okay. If he hadn't called me, I'm not sure what would have happened to you. But we don't have to worry about that because he did call me. Now go. I'll handle him until the police get here," Sami said pushing Mattie out of the apartment just as Tyler exited the bedroom. He was pissed, and appeared to be out for blood. Too bad for him Sami wasn't afraid to spill a little blood; hell, he had done it for a living for the longest time alongside Jon, so he wouldn't be scared of it now, especially not if it was done while he was in the midst of protecting one of his friends.

* * *

**Authors Note: And as you can see, a couple of you were indeed correct, it was her ex. This chapter kind of ended in a cliffhanger, too. I didn't intend for that to happen, but it was the best place I could find to finish the chapter. Sorry. But hey, at least we know Mattie is safe, right? ;)  
**


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